Good Health and Sunday Observance
By Editor
Good Health, the well-known and popular monthly published at Battle Creek, Mich., by J. H. Kellogg, M. D., enters upon the year 1889 greatly enlarged in size and improved in appearance. Dr. Kellogg spares neither pains nor expense to make his journal second to none; and he well deserves the success which has attended his efforts. The former subscription price of Good Health was $1.00 per year; it is now $1.25, which, in view of recent improvements in the size and style of the journal, is even cheaper than before. It is certainly well worth the money. IN the notes on the Sunday-school lesson in the Interior of January 3, the writer, a D. D. by the way, says, "That is the true way to spend Sunday, to do as Jesus did." We say, Amen. But that does not mean to regard Sunday as a holy day; for Jesus never did that. To do as Jesus did we would regard Sunday as a secular day. The writer means to spend Sunday as Jesus spent the Sabbath; but he writes just as though Sunday was the Sabbath kept by Jesus. This is one of the common, wicked, dishonest ways which Sunday advocates are now using to bolster up an institution which has no foundation in truth. They know that Sunday was never observed by our Lord or by holy men before him. "Let no man deceive you with vain words." THE Catholic Review argues that because Catholics go to mass Sunday morning the day is not abused one-tenth part as much in Catholic countries as appears upon the surface. Thus it appears that with Romanists, as with many Protestants, the essential thing in Sunday-keeping is attendance upon church services. Among Catholics it matters little how the rest of the day is spent if only the morning hours be devoted to religion; and that the same idea is rapidly taking possession of the Protestant mind is evidenced by the fact that the great argument against Sunday papers, Sunday trains, Sunday mails, etc., is that they keep people away from church. Indeed, the real purpose of Sunday laws, for which so many are now clamoring, seems to be to fill the churches by closing up everything else. THE attendance at the last quarterly meeting of the Oakland Seventh-day Adventist church was larger than at any previous quarterly meeting ever held. The largest per cent. of attendance ever known at any quarterly meeting of the church before was sixty-five per cent., but on the first Sabbath of the new year, seventy-five per cent. of the members were present, although the membership has greatly increased. The membership of the church on that Sabbath was 408, but this number has been considerably increased since by additions by letter. The celebration of the ordinances was entered into heartily, very many being present who had never taken part before. But the increase in membership does not by any means indicate the extent of the blessing of the Lord upon this church. This cannot be expressed in words. Sinners have been converted, backsliders reclaimed, and old professors have been quickened to a life that they never experienced before. The church social meetings are precious seasons, and the general testimony is, Hear what the Lord has done for my soul. The rapidly increasing membership of this church, together with the important interests committed to it, make its responsibilities very great, and we feel that the blessing that has been experienced greatly augments this responsibility. The prayers of God's people are earnestly desired for the church here as a whole, and for those upon whom heavy burdens have been especially laid. IN speaking of our public-school system, the Catholic Telegram says:— "It will be a glorious day for Catholics in this country when, under the laws of justice and morality, our school system shall be shivered to pieces." Then of course Roman Catholics ought to favor the Blair Amendment Bill, for if that will not shiver our system of public free schools, we know not what will. Then in that glorious day, in the rivalry which will come between the infidel and the Christian elements, the Catholics will hold the balance of power, and so be able to dictate just what "principles of the Christian religion" will be taught in our schools as provided by the Blair Amendment. But all men may not be able to indorse what Rome calls Christian. And so legal persecution will follow. WHAT Unitarianism is may be gathered very clearly from an article by the Rev. C. W. Wendte, in the Oakland Tribune of January 12, in which he enumerates the points which Unitarianism is destined to make orthodoxy surrender. Among them are these: The deity of Christ; personality of the Holy Spirit; a personal devil; endless punishment for the sinful; all theories of the atonement which endeavor to make Christ's sacrifice more than a type of the vicariousness of all human life; the so-called fall of man; the literal inspiration and infallible authority of the Bible, or any view of it which denies its natural, human, and historic origin, and excludes the merit and grace in the other sacred literatures of the race; and belief in miracles past or present. That is quite an extended list. Now we would like to know what there is to hinder Ingersoll from being a member in good standing in the Unitarian Church. THE Oakland Sabbath-school has just closed a prosperous year, and a few items concerning it may be of interest to many who have formerly been connected with it, but who are now in distant fields of labor. The number present the last Sabbath in 1887 was 300. The last Sabbath in 1888 there were 343. The membership at the close of 1887 was 405, and at the close of 1888 it was 408. This shows a great improvement in the attendance of members. The average attendance during the year has been 85 per cent. The average attendance for the last quarter of 1888 was 88 per cent. of the membership, which averaged 370. The class contributions for the year amounted to $938.61. Reckoning on the basis of the average attendance, this gives a little more than five cents as the weekly contribution of each scholar. The school has paid $98.36 tithe to the State association; the running expenses for the year have been $256.44, and the remainder of the contributions for the year, $588.23, has been given to the London City Mission. Better than all this is the fact that the interest in the study of the lessons has greatly increased, and many members of the school have given their hearts to the Lord. The school has begun the new year with good courage and zeal, and the outlook is better than ever before. THE Golden Gate makes the following comment on a thing which we were about to notice, having also seen it in the secular papers:— "Brother Moody, the evangelist, is reported as saying a few evenings ago, in his discourse at the pavilion: 'We are going to see our friends in Heaven. They are not going to lose their identity. Nor do I believe they sleep in their graves until the resurrection. Paul has not been in his grave these 1,800 years. He has been with Christ.' Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are there, too. They have not lost their identity. Nor have Moses and Elijah. When Peter and John saw Moses and Elijah just before the crucifixion they recognized them. We are going to know our friends in Heaven. We are going to have all we want, too. If a child wants toys in Heaven I believe it will get them.' That is a very practical kind of a Heaven. But what becomes of the evangelical idea of the resurrection of the physical body? How can Brother Moody's ministerial brethren sit quietly and listen to such heresy to dogmatic creed? Is the great evangelist coming over to the Spiritualist side of theology?" That is just what he is doing. That is just what everybody will do who swings loose from the teachings of the Bible. We thought that we would like to ask Mr. Moody where our dead friends do sleep, if it is not in their graves; for that they are asleep is most clearly stated in the Bible. One of two positions he must take: either they are asleep in Heaven, or else they are not asleep at all. The evangelist shows that he does not believe the former, and so what becomes of his boasted loyalty to the Bible?