LAST week we inserted a note on the application by the Golden Gate of the text, "Try the Spirits;" we shall now enlarge somewhat upon the subject. Spiritualism has now become such a common thing; and in the last few years, as compared with its earlier history, has behaved itself so exceedingly well, for it; and as the immortality of the soul, the sole foundation of Spiritualism, is made so essential a part of the creeds of all the churches, it has in a measure disarmed the distrust in which it was very properly held in its early day while yet it was a new thing.
The source of Spiritualism is above the natural. No man ever yet believed in it because of its accordance with the natural, but solely because its phenomena is contrary to that which is natural. Therefore the only proper and trustworthy test by which the spirits can be tried is something whose source is likewise above the natural; and in the Bible this demand is fully supplied. God spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets; afterward by his Son; and yet afterward by the apostles. Heb. 1:1, 2. This word came not at any time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21. Therefore we maintain that the testimony of the Bible is the true and only safe standard by which to try the spirits. To that word we appeal. To that word the appeal must ever be made, if Spiritualism, its phenomena, its tendency, and its final end would be understood at all.
It was with direct reference to Spiritualism that the prophet exclaimed, "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." The whole passage is as follows: "And when they shall say unto you, "Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it407is because there is no light in them." Most assuredly this scripture is applicable now. On every hand, and among all classes of people from the hovel to the courts of kings and the palaces of queens, they say unto you, "Seek unto them that have familiar spirits." And when this is so, the word says, "Should not a people seek unto their God?" By seeking unto God, men can learn more about Spiritualism than they can by seeking unto them that have familiar spirits. Then the prophet exclaims in a surprised inquiry, "For the living to the dead?" That is, Shall the living go to the dead to find out that which they wish to know? The living know something; the dead know nothing; and it certainly is matter of surprise that they who know something should go to them who know nothing to find out what they desire to know. Thus at the very threshold of Spiritualism, we are brought face to face with a flat contradiction of "this word" in accordance with which they must speak, or else stand proven to be from the source of darkness.
"This word," the word of God, says: "The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything. . . . Their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." Eccl. 9:5, 6. But instead of speaking according to this word, these "familiar spirits" with whom Spiritualism deals purport to be people who have died in this world, but who now live in the "spirit world," and continue to know all and a good deal more about both this world and all others than they did while they lived. That is to say, a person knows a vast deal more when he is dead than when he is alive! In other words, if a man should be struck a moderately heavy blow and merely knocked, as the term is, senseless, he knows nothing, which is a fact; but if he be struck a crushing blow and killed outright, then he knows everything! then his knowledge is almost divine! Such stuff is according to the peeping and muttering nonsense of familiar spirits, but it is in no sense according to the word of God.
But this is by no means the only point in which Spiritualism conflicts with the word of God. In fact there is no agreement at all between them. It is well known that the very first of the first fruits of Spiritualism is to destroy confidence in the Bible. That there is no agreement, but rather direct conflict instead, between the teachings of the Bible and those of Spiritualism, we have the positive evidence of prominent Spiritualists themselves. In the Religio-Philosophical Journal of April 25, 1885, there was printed an address delivered by Wm. Emmette Coleman, at the Metropolitan Temple, San Francisco, Cal., on the thirty-seventh anniversary of the advent of modern Spiritualism. The address is entitled, "A Comparison of the Scriptural and Spiritual Evidences of Man's Continued Existence;" but it is the worst kind of a misnomer to call it a comparison, for it would be impossible to show a clearer contrast between any two things than is shown in this address, between Spiritualism and the Scriptures. We are glad to see this contrast so clearly defined by Spiritualism itself; for we propose to present a summary of it, and if we were to draw up such a one ourselves, some might think we were prejudiced even to bigotry.
We are sorry that we cannot present this summary in Mr. Coleman's own words, in full; but the truth is that in his presentation of the Bible side of the case, he sometimes uses language so extravagant, not to say scandalous, that we would not show such disrespect to our readers as to set it in our columns. We shall, however, as nearly as possible, present the matter as he did, only dropping his extravagances.
"The Scriptures teach the eternal punishment of wicked mortals and fallen angels in everlasting hell-fire; Spiritualism teaches the non-existence of the fallen angels and the lake of fire, and that there is no eternal punishment."
"The New Testament teaches the existence of a fixed, material Heaven, above the clouds, ruled autocratically by a local, personal God, seated on a throne, attended by hosts of non-human, winged angels; Spiritualism teaches that Heaven is a mental condition,—happiness, harmony,—not a fixed location, and that in the spiritual world no trace can be found of a masculine potentate, enthroned in solemn awe, and that all angels are human spirits, devoid of wings, who have progressed into a high and pure condition from the lower spheres of the spirit realm."
"Jesus and the apostles evidently conceived Heaven to be created miraculously by the arbitrary fiat of Jehovah; Spiritualism pronounces all spirit-worlds to be evolved from material worlds, or from lower spiritual worlds, through laws eternal as nature."
"Christianity and the Bible threaten eternal damnation as a penalty for non-belief in Jesus; while Spiritualism declares that the belief or non-belief in Jesus weighs nothing as against the soul's salvation, the attainment of Heaven being dependent solely upon the character and aspiration of the individual, independent of all beliefs in speculative doctrines, and that, if any thing, the belief in the supremacy of Jesus, on earth and in Heaven, being an intellectual error, will retard rather than advance the soul's progress in light and love, purity and wisdom."
"The New Testament and Christianity teach that man's salvation, in a measure, depends upon his submission to the rite of baptism; Spiritualism affirms baptism to be of no avail, a foolish relic of ancient superstition, a belief in its efficacy cramping the mind and dwarfing the powers of the soul, inimical rather than favorable to the soul's purification."
"The New Testament teaches salvation by and through Christ; Spiritualism knows no salvation through Christ or any other person, male or female—the man Jesus being able to save himself only, every soul being its own saviour, assisted of course by other sympathizing souls like Jesus, Paul, and other philanthropists."
"Jesus and the apostles appear to have believed that the body and soul of man remained unconscious till the judgment day, when all material bodies would rise from the dead reanimated. Spiritualism affirms that the material body decomposes and is never restored to life, it having no place in the spirit world, it being impossible for purely material things to exist in that realm."
"Christ and the apostles taught that at the end of the world a general judgment would take place, with Christ as judge, seated on a cloudy throne, before which throne all that have ever lived on earth would be assembled, in their material bodies; that the records of each life kept by angels would be read, and the entire multitude be separated into two great divisions. Spiritualism shows this to be a fancy-sketch,—that no material resurrection or judgment day will ever happen; that immediately after death each human soul enters upon its never-ending pathway through the spheres, upward and onward forever, the day of judgment in our sense taking place at the entrance of each soul into spirit life, and in a more extended sense in every day of the life of every soul, a constant fact in the consciousness of all. Also that Jesus has no connection with the judgment of any soul save his own, in any peculiar or special sense."
"Finally, Jesus taught that there was no marriage in the future life; while Spiritualism teaches that the domestic relations are eternal; that all true marital unions continue in the after life; that all souls have eternal soul-mates, the two being destined in time to be eternally conjoined as one; and that there is no such thing as bachelorhood or old-maidism in the spirit country, except in the earlier experiences of some spirits, the very universe itself being redolent of nuptial unions in all departments of being, the sex principle being inherent in the eternal constitution of things."
"In no one particular, then, does the description of our future home found in the Bible correspond with the sublime and virtue-inspiring realities of spirit existence open to our gaze in this age of spiritual light and revelation."
Thus in trying the spirits, by the very first test that we apply, by this appeal "to the law and to the testimony," we find that "there is no light in them." Next week, if the Lord will, we shall try them further.
What Is Death?
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
SOME time ago the following question appeared in the Christian Union, and the appended answer is by that paper:—
"Can you tell me how it is that learned Christian ministers call death the coming of the Lord? Can it be that the terrible 'enemy,' the dreaded foe to all our earthly hopes and loves, is the same as the 'bright appearing' of the 'great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,' the 'blessed hope' everywhere spoken of in the Scriptures as the event of joy, which we are to 'look for and hasten unto'? Who can say from the heart, 'O death, come quickly?'"
"The coming of death cannot be said in any sense to fulfill that coming of the Lord which is in the New Testament so much the hope and expectation of God's children; but to those who believe that death brings them at once into the immediate presence of their Lord, that to depart is to be with Christ, which is far better, death is no longer the dreaded foe he once was, and in a true sense dying is going to the Lord."
What a mixture is here! "The coming of death cannot in any sense fulfill that coming of the Lord which is the hope of the Christian; but, "in a true sense dying is going to the Lord." Now if dying is not in any sense the coming of the Lord, but is, on the contrary, a going to the Lord, then how can there ever be any such thing as "that coming of the Lord which is in the New Testament so much the hope and expectation of God's children"? For if dying is going to the Lord, then as a matter of hope the coming of the Lord is literally destroyed. But all such stuff as that "dying is going to the Lord" is worse than nonsense,—it is a positive perversion of the plain word of the Lord Jesus. He said: "Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you." John 13:33. What he had said to the Jews was this: "Ye shall seek me, and ye shall die in your sins; whither I go, ye cannot come." John 8:21. As he said to those Jews, "Whither I go, ye cannot come," so now he said to his disciples, "Whither I go, ye cannot come." Therefore, if there is any one thing that is made positive by the Lord Jesus, it is that no one can go to him by dying. Yet in spite of this, here is an eminent Christian (?) publication which flatly says, "In a true sense dying is going to the Lord." But "to the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
Again, the Union says: "To those who believe that death brings them at once into the immediate presence of the Lord . . . death is no longer the dreaded foe he once was." Now the Scripture is the word of God, and that word declares death to be an "enemy," pictures him armed with a dreadful "sting," and calls him "the king of terrors." He was one of the most eminent Christians who ever lived, who declared death to be an "enemy" (1 Cor. 15:26); and it was in portraying the victory of the triumphant Christian that he pictured this enemy as having the fatal "sting" (1 Cor. 15:55-57). He was a perfect and upright man, "one that feared God, and eschewed evil;" one who, out of the fullness of a sublime faith, could exclaim, "I know that my Redeemer liveth;" he it was who described death as "the king of terrors" (Job 18:12-14). And however much authoritative leaders of theological thought may draw upon pagan mythology and heathen superstition for material with which to dress it up in the beautiful flowing robes of a royal friend; yet as the word of God is true, it has been, and is, and ever will be, the truth, that death is an "enemy" and "the king of terrors." We repeat, "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8:20. "Lo they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them"? Jer. 8:9. E. J. W.
"They Shall See God."
By John Harvey Waggoner
THIS sentence is expressive not only of favor, but of honor. To be a citizen of the best and most glorious kingdom is a matter of pride and pleasure to all; to be received into the royal city as a favored inhabitant is a mark of respect prized by all who may enjoy it; but to be permitted to stand in the king's presence, and to behold his face, is counted the very highest honor.
But such is the favor and the honor promised in the Bible to a certain class. Not to stand before the kings of this world, who in a day may be dethroned and dishonored; or who must die and return to the dust, even as the meanest of earth; but to stand before the King of kings, before the Eternal One, the Creator and Upholder of all things. They have, not only an abundant entrance into his everlasting kingdom; not only right to the tree of life, a right to enter into the glorious city, but they shall see God; they shall behold his face, and be permitted to worship before his throne.
Who are they who shall thus be honored in Heaven? They are "the pure in heart." And why is this peculiar blessing promised to that class? It is because God is pure. He is infinite in holiness, and nothing impure can possibly stand in his presence.
They must be pure in heart; not merely correct in outward deportment; not blameless only in the sight of men. They must be pure in the sight of God; pure in the light of infinite purity and perfection.
Their outward life must also be correct. They must be above reproach before the world. But they must be more than this. The world cannot behold the corruption within. We may throw a cloak over our wrongs, and the world may be deceived in regard to our real character. The world may forget the errors which they have known, and judge favorably on account of their own failures. But God is never deceived. He never forgets. Nothing is hid from his sight; nothing is lost from his remembrance.
If the heart is not pure the life cannot be pure. "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts." Many have grieved because they could not banish evil thoughts from their minds. They knew these were wrong, but they lacked the moral power to subdue them. Many have sunk in discouragement over the feebleness of their efforts, over their many failures to overcome, over the weakness of their resolutions or their inability to carry them out. The difficulty in all such cases is in the heart. Conversion without conviction is shallow and deficient. But with many conviction is deeper than conversion. They know and approve the good, but fail to reach it in their lives. When they would do good, evil is present with them.
Evil thoughts are odious in the sight of God, and are among the "secret things" which God will bring into judgment. They are evidences of a corrupt heart, and if indulged, lead to a corrupt life. In the Saviour's catalogue of evils proceeding from the heart, evil thoughts are followed by "murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." The apostle says that he who hates is a murderer; and the Saviour shows that he who indulges impure desire is guilty of adultery. This will be the scale of judgment in the great day. Hatred and impure desire are murder and adultery in their first stages. So they are regarded of God, and so they will be condemned in the Judgment.
Not among the least of the evils of the heart is its deceitfulness. "The heart is deceitful above all things." We are almost every day deceived by earthly hopes, earthly prospects, earthly pleasures, and earthly friends. But we are oftener and more terribly deceived by our own hearts. They lead us to feel secure when all around is danger. They cause us to feel self-complacent when all is darkness and corruption within. "Who can know it?" is the question of inspiration. It is impossible for any one to know his heart unless he is enlightened by divine wisdom; by the word and Spirit of God. So great is self-deception that many will not accept reproof, but insist that they are right when their lives are grossly corrupt. And unwillingness to be reproved, is one of the strongest evidences of self-deception and impurity of heart.
By this I do not mean merely an unwillingness to hear reproof or to be advised. Self-deception puts on more deceptive forms than that. Some will ask for advice, and court reproof in words, imagining that thereby they give strong proof of humility. But their invariable failure to act upon the advice given, and their neglect to reform the errors or habits reproved, show too clearly that their blindness is deep laid in their selfish hearts. All efforts to assist such seem unavailing.
To those who have grieved over their weaknesses, who have grown discouraged over their many failures, I would offer words of hope and courage. Our internal foes are our worst enemies, but we may say, in the words of the hymn:—
"Yet let nothing spoil your peace;
Christ will also conquer these."
"The carnal mind," the natural or unrenewed heart, "is enmity against God." But this may be all removed, and we be "justified by faith," so that we may have peace "with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Says the Saviour, "Without me ye can do nothing." Here is our fault. Our efforts are made in our own strength. We do not make a complete surrender. When we become fully sensible of our own weakness, and are willing to put away every idol, and can believe that God is willing to receive us to the strong arms of his love; when we so hunger and thirst after righteousness that we truly hate the sins which grieve the Spirit of God, and yield all to the Lord without any reserve, then will he clothe us with the power of his salvation. His grace will be found sufficient for us, and we may realize as well as know that "perfect love casteth out fear."
A heart that is pure will have the love of God in it, and this will be manifested by complete submission to his will—cheerful obedience to his commandments. A pure heart will love to commune with God, and will daily gather strength from the "throne of grace." Strength to do or to bear, to work or to wait, and to hide self behind the cross, and "do all to the glory of God." J. H. W.
Camp-Meeting in Madison, Wisconsin.
By Stephen Nelson Haskell
THIS camp-meeting closed Tuesday morning, June 22, and it can be truly said that the best of the wine was at the last of the feast. Madison is a city of about twelve thousand inhabitants, and the capital of the State. The State tract depository is located here; and a city mission which has been in successful operation for nearly a year had awakened quite an interest in the truth.
The meeting commenced Wednesday, June 16. There were eighty-five tents pitched on the ground. Meetings were conducted in the German and Scandinavian languages, besides the regular services in English. The camp was located on the fair ground, about two miles from the center of the city. Each night there was a good congregation from the city, of individuals who had become interested in our views. Wisconsin is among our largest Conferences, having about sixteen hundred members; and it is estimated that not far from six hundred of these are Scandinavians. But the number that attended the camp-meeting was not as great in proportion as in many of the other Conferences.
In many of the meetings the Spirit of the Lord came especially near; but at other times a spirit of coldness seemed to come over the people. The meetings in the Scandinavian tent were of great interest throughout. Many expressed themselves as thinking they were the best meetings that they had ever attended. We spoke to these brethren upon the rise and progress of the cause, and of God's work in Australia, Brother Lewis Johnson translating what we said into their language. God is evidently giving this people a deeper interest than they have ever before felt to labor for others. They seemed to have an earnest desire that the truth might go to those of their own nationality in other countries. We learned here, as in Iowa, that there are Scandinavian settlements in New Zealand and Australia, and through correspondence by some of that nationality in this country an interest has been awakened in them to learn more of present truth. Thus there are links connecting our people in America with almost every nationality and country in the world.
The report of the tract society showed that much labor had been put forth in the distribution of reading matter. But while this work had been blessed of God, we did not see so many evidences of his special providence in bringing men and women into the truth as we have seen in some other Conferences. We have reached a time when God is going before his people to prepare hearts for the reception of his truth, and home and foreign missionaries are wanted everywhere. If in the past our tract societies could take 20,000 copies of the SIGNS for missionary work, in view of the prospects before us, the number should now be greatly increased.
The Sabbath-school Association received much attention, and a deep interest was manifested in this branch of the work. On Sabbath afternoon the Spirit of God came into the meeting, and about one hundred persons came forward for prayers. Quite a number of these declared themselves blessed upon the occasion.
For a number of years there has been a lack of harmony in the Conference, though in the main the brethren and sisters have been in sympathy with the work at large. Brother Breed, who had served the Conference the past year, as president, felt that he could not take the office again under existing circumstances; and he was the only one that the minds of the brethren rested upon. Finally a spirit of confession and earnest seeking of the Lord was manifest. Some votes that had been previously taken were rescinded, and the brethren unanimously declared themselves in sympathy with the action of the General Conference in every respect, and expressed an earnest desire to work as a Conference in harmony with our people. Brother Breed, who was the unanimous choice of the people, was elected president of the Conference for the coming year, and finally consented to take the position. The Spirit of God then began to come into the meeting as it had not before.
After the Conference adjourned, the tract society had its closing meeting. The brethren felt that they had made a mistake in not having district secretaries, and voted that such secretaries should be appointed throughout the State. In large Conferences it is impossible to keep up the interest in the missionary work without district quarterly meetings, and if there are such meetings, it is necessary that a record be made of them, which makes it necessary that there be district secretaries. Then with a small amount of publications on hand they can supply the various societies without waiting for small packages to come from the State depository. This also saves a multiplicity of accounts with the State secretary. The director of a district is really the same to the district as the president is to the State Society.
Our closing meeting Tuesday morning was one of unusual interest; many feeling testimonies were borne in quick succession. It seemed almost impossible to bring the meeting to a close. In connection with this meeting Brother Westfall, a German,409and Brother Hyett were ordained to the work of the gospel ministry. The Spirit of God rested down in large measure, and from this time until our brethren left the ground a spirit of freedom was felt by all. After the meeting closed the ministers met to deliberate upon their future labors, and the same good spirit characterized their consultations; and the friends returned to their homes with far better courage than they would have felt had they gone before the meeting on Tuesday morning.
There were many interesting things connected with this meeting. Brother Jordan, who had been at the Sanitarium at Battle Creek, and had been unable to labor on account of feebleness of health, felt to seek the Lord for help, and at a season of prayer with him the sweet Spirit of God came down, and we felt of a certainty that he witnessed to the move. We had another season of prayer with Brother Jordan just before we took the 'bus to leave the ground, Tuesday afternoon. Here again we had the most signal evidence that God approved of the steps that had been taken.
We look for a degree of prosperity in the Wisconsin Conference that will far exceed anything which has yet been seen. There are many different nationalities in that State, in settlements from a few hundreds to thousands; and there is therefore no better missionary field in the world. With proper missionary effort there may be open doors through which the truth will go to all parts of the world. Ours is a world-wide message, and where we can find the greatest number of representatives of different nationalities, there is the best missionary field.
Tuesday night we took the train for the Minneapolis, Minnesota, camp-meeting, which we reached this morning, June 23. Already they have about one hundred and fifty tents pitched, and others are continually arriving. Over the preachers' stand is the motto, "Hear the Word of the Lord." Around, inside of the pavilion, which is 80x120 feet, are the various mottos: "I Am the Way," "Thy Word Is Truth," "Ye Are All Bought with a Price," etc. The camp is in the midst of a thickly settled grove. For the first time, we found a tent pitched over the tops of the trees, which create a shade besides those outside of the tent. The brethren seem to be of good cheer. About eight hundred are present. The prospects are that we shall have not only a large gathering, but a successful meeting. The camp is six miles from the city. A portion of the way the cars from the city to the grounds are run by electricity. The meeting commences to-night. The ministers from abroad who have already arrived are Elders Butler, Canright, Daniels, McCoy, and the writer.
S. N. H.
Loyola's First Disciples.
AMONG the wonderful things shown to Ignatius Loyola by special revelation was a vision of two great camps. The center of the one was placed at Babylon, and over it there floated the gloomy ensign of the prince of darkness. The heavenly King had erected his standard on Mount Zion, and made Jerusalem his headquarters. In the war of which these two camps were the symbols, and the issues of which were to be grand beyond all former precedent, Loyola was chosen, he believed, to be one of the chief captains. He longed to place himself at the center of action. The way thither was long. Wide oceans and gloomy deserts had to be traversed, and hostile tribes passed through. But he had an iron will, a boundless enthusiasm, and what was more, a divine call—for such it seemed to him in his delusion. He set out penniless (1523), and begging his bread by the way, he arrived at Barcelona. There he embarked in a ship which landed him on the shore of Italy. Thence, traveling on foot, after long months and innumerable hardships, he entered in safety the gates of Jerusalem. But the reception that awaited him in the "Holy City," was not such as he had fondly anticipated. His rags, his uncombed locks, which almost hid his emaciated features, but ill accorded with the magnificence of the errand which had brought him to that shore. Loyola thought of doing in his single person what the armies of the crusaders had failed to do by their combined strength. The head of the Romanists in Jerusalem saw in him rather the mendicant than the warrior, and fearing doubtless that should he offer battle to the Crescent, he was more likely to provoke a tempest of Turkish fanaticism than drive back the hordes of the infidel, he commanded him to desist under the threat of excommunication. Thus withstood, Loyola returned to Barcelona, which he reached in 1524.
Derision and insult awaited his arrival in his native Spain. His countrymen failed to see the grand aims he cherished beneath his rags; nor could they divine the splendid career, and the immortality of fame, which were to emerge from his present squalor and debasement. But not for one moment did Loyola's own faith falter in his great destiny. He had the art, known only to those fated to act a great part, of converting impediments into helps, and extracting new experience and fresh courage from disappointment. His repulse from the "holy fields" had taught him that Christendom, and not Asia, was the predestined scene of his warfare, and that he was to do battle, not with the410infidels of the East, but with the ever-growing hosts of heretics in Europe. But to meet the Protestant on his own ground, and to fight him with his own weapons, was a still more difficult task than to convert the Saracen. He felt that meanwhile he was destitute of the necessary qualifications, but it was not too late to acquire them.
Though a man of thirty-five, he put himself to school at Barcelona, and there, seated amid the youth of the city, he prosecuted the study of Latin. Having acquired some mastery of this tongue, he removed (1526) to the University of Alcala to commence theology. In a little space he began to preach. Discovering a vast zeal in the propagation of his tenets, and no little success in making disciples, male and female, the Inquisition, deeming both the man and his aims somewhat mysterious, arrested him. The order of the Jesuits was on the point of being nipped in the bud. But finding in Loyola no heretical bias, the Fathers dismissed him on his promise of holding his peace. He repaired to Salamanca, but there too he encountered similar obstacles. It was not agreeable thus to champ the curb of privilege and canonical authority, but it ministered to him a wholesome discipline. It sharpened his circumspection and shrewdness, without in the least abating his ardor. Holding fast by his grand purpose, he quitted his native land, and repairing in 1528 to Paris, entered himself as a student in the College of St. Barbara.
In the world of Paris he became more practical; but the flame of his enthusiasm still burned on. Through penance, through study, through ecstatic visions, and occasional checks, he pursued with unshaken faith and unquenched resolution his celestial calling as the leader of a mighty spiritual army, of which he was to be the creator, and which was to wage victorious battle with the hosts of Protestantism. Loyola's residence in Paris, which was from 1528 to 1535, coincides with the period of greatest religious excitement in the French capital. Discussions were at that time of hourly occurrence in the streets, in the halls of the Sorbonne, and at the royal table. Loyola must have witnessed all the stirring and tragic scenes we have already described; he may have stood by the stake of Berquin; he had seen with indignation, doubtless, the saloons of the Louvre opened for the Protestant sermon; he had felt the great shock which France received from the Placards, and taken part, it may be, in the bloody rites of her great day of expiation. It is easy to see how, amid excitements like these, Loyola's zeal would burn stronger every hour; but his ardor did not hurry him into action till all was ready. The blow he meditated was great, and time, patience, and skill were necessary to prepare the instruments by whom he was to inflict it.
It chanced that two young students shared with Loyola his rooms in the College of St. Barbara. The one was Peter Fabre, from Savoy. His youth had been passed amid his father's flocks; the majesty of the silent mountains had sublimed his natural piety into enthusiasm; and one night, on bended knee, under the star-bestudded vault, he devoted himself to God in a life of study. The other companion of Loyola was Francis Xavier, of Pampeluna, in Navarre. For five hundred years his ancestors had been renowned as warriors, and his ambition was, by becoming a scholar, to enhance the fame of his house by adding to its glory in arms the yet purer glory of learning. These two, the humble Savoyard and the high-born Navarrese, Loyola had resolved should be his first disciples.
As the artist selects his block, and with skillful eye and plastic hand bestows touch after touch of the chisel, till at last the superfluous parts are cleared away, and the statue stands forth so complete and perfect in its symmetry that the dead stone seems to breathe, so did the future general of the Jesuit army proceed to mould and fashion his two companions, Fabre and Xavier. The former was soft and pliable, and easily took the shape which the master-hand sought to communicate. The other was obdurate, like the rocks of his native mountains, but the patience and genius of Loyola finally triumphed over his pride of family and haughtiness of spirit. He first of all won their affection by certain disinterested services; he next excited their admiration by the loftiness of his own asceticism; he then imparted to them his grand project, and fired them with the ambition of sharing with him in the accomplishment of it. Having brought them thus far, he entered them on a course of discipline, the design of which was to give them those hardy qualities of body and soul, which would enable them to fulfill their lofty vocation as leaders in an army, every soldier in which was to be tried and hardened in the fire as he himself had been. He exacted of them frequent confession; he was equally rigid as regarded their participation in the Eucharist; the one exercise trained them in submission, the other fed the flame of their zeal, and thus the two cardinal qualities which Loyola demanded in all his followers were developed side by side. Severe bodily mortifications were also enjoined upon them. "Three days and three nights did he compel them to fast. During the severest winters, when carriages might be seen to traverse the frozen Seine, he would not permit Fabre the slightest relaxation of discipline." Thus it was that he mortified their pride, taught them to despise wealth, schooled them to brave danger and contemn luxury, and inured them to cold, hunger, and toil; in short, he made them dead to every passion save that of the "Holy War," in which they were to bear arms.—Wylie's "History of Protestantism."
(Concluded next week.)
A Manly Stand.
By Editor
RECENTLY over three hundred men employed in the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, struck because the company would not accede to their demand to discharge those of its employés who do not belong to the trades union. The following letter to the secretary of the union, from the manager of the iron works, explains itself:—
“We acknowledge the receipt of your communication informing us that a committee of arbitration has been appointed to meet the representatives of this company to arbitrate on the difference between us. We fail to see how it would be possible to arbitrate on the issue you have raised in demanding the discharge of certain of our workmen because they do not belong to your federation. If it were a question of wages or hours, work-shop rules or practice, we would be most ready to meet you and endeavor to arrive at a just settlement; but what you demand is not ours to give. The right of every man to honestly earn his living is his own right, and is secured to him by a higher power than either yours or ours. Suppose we could arbitrate on such a question, and the arbitrators should allow that you had the right to demand the discharge of any number of men from our works because they might be obnoxious to some union in your federation, and that you had the right to withdraw all of your men from our works. Should the demand not be complied with, then the same process of arbitration would of necessity grant us the same rights, by which we could demand the expulsion of any member of your federation who might from any cause be obnoxious to us, and that we should have the right to lock out all union men in our employ if our demands were not complied with.
“The demand you have made is unjust, and a compliance with it, either in whole or in part, would be a criminal act on our part. A wrong could never be arbitrated into a right. We can therefore see no way to a settlement, except by a frank withdrawal of your demand.”
This is wholesome reading for the strikers. The manager has stated a principle that has probably never been considered by strikers who profess to want “arbitration,” which, in their vocabulary, means compliance with their demands. If there is anything meaner than the attempt of members of trades unions to deprive non-members of work, we have never heard of it.