Editorial Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 16, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 49.

Editorial Notes

By Editor

THE article by Dr. M. G. Kellogg, in the Mission Fields department, is taken from the Fiji Times of August 19. It shows both the good and evil of mission work. When will Christians learn that Christianity cannot be propagated by law?

NEXT week is the last number of the present volume of the Signs of the Times. The paper will be omitted one week after that. The first number of the new volume will bear date of November 6. Upon this we will have more to say next week.

IN a census of the religious life of Waldo County, Maine, which we suppose to be about the average, out of 6,987 families 4,850 reported that they were not attendants upon any church. This is not in the "wild and woolly West," where there are no Sunday laws, but in prohibition Maine. It certainly does not argue for a "Christian nation" when two-thirds of the inhabitants are not attendants upon Sunday services.

It is in this way that the Argonaut, a secular weekly, scores the press of San Francisco:—

We have asserted before and now repeat that San Francisco is literally accursed of its press. There is no other institution on this coast so utterly debauched, so thoroughly licentious, and so absolutely demoralized as the newspapers of this city. Heretofore we have denounced these publications for their mercenary character, their selfishness, their cowardice, their personal jealousies, their vindictive quarrels. We have demonstrated their mendacity, and exposed their hypocrisy. We believe they are utterly unprincipled, and in pursuit of unlawful gains will stick at nothing.

And we do not know but that it is all true; and the press is the index of the age.

SAYS the Occident (Presbyterian):—

The directors of the World's Fair defied Christian sentiment and opened the gates on the Sabbath day. The result was immense financial loss, as well as shame and confusion of face, to the perpetrators of this outrage against God and man.

And how was it against God, pray? And what right has Sunday to be called "the Sabbath day"? And what did the church gain in spiritual things in the struggle? She won notoriety, earthly power, and prestige in cajoling and browbeating politicians. She won and lost in coming down from spiritual things to the use of the weapons carnal. But how much has she won for Christ and his cause? How many souls have been saved? Woe is to the church when temporal success politically is bought at the price of spiritual power!

THE Pacific Press Publishing Company, Oakland, Cal., now have the tract for sale containing Professor Prescott's sermons on "Christ and the Sabbath." Price, 5 cents. They are issued as No. 14 of the Religious Liberty Library. Address as the above.

THE great Buddhist, H. Dharmapala, says, as reported in the Examiner of October 6:—

Nothing should be taken on faith. People should study and think deeply before deciding upon what they shall believe. It was upon such broad principles that Buddhism is based.

And herein is the difference between the religion of Jesus Christ and the nature religions of the world. They declare a religion of faith foolishness, yet they demand the most senseless credulity. Men take all things on belief. Who has searched out the wisdom professed by Buddhists? Faith in God and his word is the truest reason and involves the broadest, deepest thinking and truest knowledge the world has ever known. "By faith we understand."

Is It Not Time?—One minister, Rev. R. L. Lotz, of Pomeroy, Wash., in writing to the Harbinger (Christian), asks the following pertinent questions:—

Why are we continually having to petition those in power? Why do we permit ourselves to be thrown into such a humiliating position? Why do men put the devil in power and then have to petition him to act like a Christian? Who are these men whom we petitioned to close the World's Fair on Sunday? How did these men who are opposed to closing the Fair get into power? Who is responsible for their appointment? Who elected the men who appointed such men to their places? We, the people of the United States, is our answer. Again, I see a set of resolutions passed by the ministers of San Francisco, asking those in charge of the Midwinter Exposition to close the same on Sunday. How does it come that the good people of the cities are continually on their knees to those who are in power? Has it come to pass in this progressive age that God has to petition the devil to help him out? Have we reached the time when the children of God are simply petitioners at the throne of Satan?

And if the people of these United States put these men in office, is it not probable that they are the very men who are wanted there? And is it not also true that the men elected to office should have nothing to do with legislation on religious questions? The fact that "the good people" "are continually on their knees to those who are in power" ought to be proof sufficient that they have not faith in Christ. They do not believe that he can care for his own cause, or else that Sunday is no part of his cause. Which is it? We are glad that one minister is stirred up; is it not time?