Earlier text: PNEUMONIA

CURE “LA GRIPPE” YOURSELF

By Alonzo T. Jones

Two years ago we published the following cure for la grippe. It then did many persons much good; and as there are many who are readers of the REVIEW now who were not then, we publish it again:—

As winter has now come in full blast, la grippe is likely to make itself felt at any time. It is a dangerous thing, too; and if not broken up at the earliest possible moment, it will cause severe illness at present, and leave its mark upon the system for months to come.

However, la grippe can be so effectually broken up that no one need be injured by it, nor necessarily confined to the house longer than to put himself through the treatment. And the treatment is so simple that it is within the reach of everybody; and it is so easily applied that any one can give it to himself if need be. And here it is:—

1. As soon as you discover that you have la grippe, put your feet, and up to the knees if possible, in water as hot as can be borne.

2. Keep the water as hot as can be borne, by putting in boiling water.

3. Continue this till perspiration is started. At the same time it is helpful, though not essential, to sip hot lemonade.

4. When perspiration has been well started, take out your feet, dry them quickly, wrap them in hot flannels, and lie down with hot-water bottles, hot bricks, or something of the kind, at your feet.

5. Lie there till you choose to get up; and la grippe will be killed. You will probably be too weak to do much; but as la grippe is gone, your strength will soon return.

Now do not pass this treatment by as too simple to be followed, and go to taking medicine, or even a full bath. Follow these directions strictly, simple as they appear, and you will find la grippe effectually broken.

I know this because I have thoroughly tested the treatment. I have tested it while on a journey, when I had only poor facilities, yet with complete success. I have tested it in a country cabin, within fifteen miles of the Russian border, in the month of December, on an attack of la grippe straight from Russia, and undiluted; and with such success as to miss but one sermon in a series of appointments. And others have applied it with equal success.

There is true philosophy in it. And the philosophy lies here: La grippe, at its seizure, is peculiarly a disease of the head. Plainly, therefore, if the blood can be drawn away from the head, so that the disease shall have nothing to feed on, la grippe will have to fail. Holding the feet in water so hot, does effectually draw the blood to the farthest extremity from the head; and keeping the feet hot so long, holds the blood away from the head, so that the disease is robbed of support; it can not spread, and inevitably fails.

A full bath, even though it be a Turkish or a Russian, is not effectual against la grippe; because the whole body is equally heated, the blood is made to bound more rapidly, and the disease is fed rather than starved.

Follow these directions strictly, and nothing will fail but la grippe.

If you have not had experience so that you are acquainted with la grippe, you can know that it is upon you by your eyes burning, your nose tickling, your head feeling large and full, and perhaps every joint and muscle of the body aching. But you need not wait for all these symptoms: one or two of them is enough to justify you in beginning proceedings.

ALONZO T. JONES.

The Fourth and Fifth Plagues

By B. G. Wilkinson

The second and third angels have done their work. Did the sea and rivers continue to yield refreshing waters, they would offer a recoil to the stroke of the succeeding plague. But the third angel, returning from his task, announces that the earth has yielded back the oceans and rivers of blood, which she had received from the slain saints. Like all wicked deeds, the harvest comes back in a most unbearable form; for this blood, returning now, strengthens the coming plague.

Leaving his position in front of the temple, “the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire, and men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give Him glory.”

The visitation of this plague must be something terrible. Under the three preceding ones no utterance is heard from those upon whom they fell. But the effects of the fourth vial bring out blasphemous expressions from the lips of the guilty. The wicked no longer find shelter from that God who so often has sent rain upon the just and upon the unjust. No longer do they enjoy the tempered and blessed rays of the sun. That which was a blessing has now become a burden. Added strength is given to the sun’s light, so that it shines with fierce intensity.

This heat is no ordinary hot spell. The Greek conveys the idea of heat having increased to fire. Men are surrounded, as it were, with an atmosphere of fire. It does not consume; but it presses close upon the despisers of God’s grace, until the very flesh is burned. Now men are brought to realize what God may be when love, insulted and mistreated, has changed into fierceness of wrath. Such unusual heat extends its desolation all around. Fields as well as men are scorched. Beasts share with human beings in the sufferings of this burning heat. The25famine began under the two preceding plagues is greatly increased. Now has come the time so long foretold by the prophet Joel. Joel 1:1–3, 15–20. “Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.” Why? The prophet would ask a question. He would tell of a condition heretofore unknown, and so demands: “Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?”

No; never has the history or the traditions of men revealed the like. Extraordinary as it is, it will not be related simply that the listeners may feast on something wonderful. But: “Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.” Why? Simply that these children may successively relate some great event of the past?—No. But for mercy’s sake keep on telling it. Tell it on, that the generations yet unborn, upon whom this terrible thing shall come, may be warned and may escape. What is it? “Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. . . . The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.”

Only the fire did John see; but Joel saw the withered fields, the groaning beasts, and the herds perplexed. And the sight so overpowered him that he pleaded with the generations then unborn never to cease proclaiming the warning. Why should men permit the interests of flocks and fields to trample out their service to God? Must not wealth thus loved receive the blighting breath? God shall not always be set aside. The scene which he brought Joel to look upon must be experienced by those whose transgressions have brought down the blighting plagues.

The effect of this burning heat will bring to some more terrible sufferings than to others. But none will suffer more than those who have transgressed in misusing the physical frame. While, on the other hand, they will be most able to endure who before indulgence have placed obedience to the divine counsels concerning the body. This has been the experience of the past; the experience of the future will be similar. I quote from a clipping taken from the Chicago Times-Herald, Aug. 13, 1896. It is an editorial:—

The hot spell is over at last. . . . The gentle rain from heaven released millions from the bonds in which they writhed under the torrid sky, and, good physician that it is, healed the sick, rescued the dying from the jaws of death, and set up all the world erect and hopeful and happy. . . . It came none too soon for the country. On all sides the suffering has been intense; and as one hot day followed on the heels of another, the effects threatened to amount to a national calamity. The death rate from sunstroke or collapse was as large as that occasioned by a widespread epidemic of smallpox. But the deaths caused directly by the heat were few in number compared with those in which the weather was only an ALLY OF DISEASE AND CONSTITUTIONAL WEAKNESS. No one can read the returns from the health department for this memorable week without amazement and horror. Scores of persons who might have successfully resisted death for months to come, scores of others, suffering from maladies whose fatal power was unsuspected, succumbed to the terror of the sun. The weak, the badly nourished, and the overworked were unresisting victims of the unfeeling sky.

That great week of hot weather in 1896 clearly showed that they fell first whose bodies were the home of diseases. Had not intemperance, impurity, and transgression first broken in upon the soundness of the frame, the sun’s rays would have fallen powerless. How farseeing, then, are the calls of God to purity, temperance, and industry! Who shall go down before the attack of the fourth plague?— Those who have neglected these calls. But who shall successfully breast the prostrating effects of this fiery atmosphere?—Even those who have heard and heeded the divine counsels upon healthful living.

This plague brings the time when it can be fully discerned who serve God and who serve Him not. Upon the characters of men it has a ripening effect. The tares can now be fully distinguished from the wheat. Open blasphemy becomes a recognized fact. And from this plague onward till tongues are silent in death, blasphemy continues. Men again blaspheme at the falling of the fifth plague; while the scenes of the seventh, and last, are intermingled with the curses of the eternally lost.

The blasphemy of the Beast during the days it sat exalted high upon a monarch’s seat were the deceiving religious tones of Antichrist. The characters of wicked men were fixed, never to be unsettled, before the plagues began to fall. But under the fourth plague those wicked men break forth into open blasphemy. Not that the plagues come to drive them into blasphemy, but to disclose the blasphemy already in their hearts. This disclosure was occasioned by the fourth plague. The fourth angel was the first to witness its open manifestation. Therefore he is best entitled to make that unchangeable announcement of Rev. 14:18: “And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to Him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth: for her grapes are fully ripe.” Another angel had cried to the Son of man, seated upon the white cloud, that the harvest is ripe. But that the grapes were ripe, the wicked who would be cast into the winepress of wrath, is the proclamation of the angel that had power over fire.

You see, then, that the angel of the fourth plague is an actor in the scenes both of chapter fourteen and of chapter sixteen. Why so? In chapter fourteen he had seen men create a god, and demand all others to worship him. He beheld the new creators, conscious of their divinity’s helplessness, decree for him a mark of authority. That mark, we have seen, was a day of worship, a sabbath in counterfeit of that of the true God. By the power of the State it was decreed that that mark, that sabbath, should be accepted upon penalty of death. That day of worship we have seen is Sunday. The origin of Sunday dates back to the times of heathen sun worship. Therefore, though blindly, perhaps ignorantly, yet virtually, untold millions were ignoring God’s Sabbath, and worshiping the day of the sun. In this they were deifying the sun. It then becomes necessary that their deity be dethroned. So the decree went forth from God to the fourth angel to turn into unbearable fire the gracious rays of the sun. And this afflicting torment brought to light the hidden blasphemy. Now the grapes stood forth fully ripe for the winepress of God’s wrath.

How accurately does the proclamation of the angel in chapter fourteen declare the transgressors of God’s law to be those who receive the fourth plague. The intimate connection of the proclamation with the events of that chapter show the angel’s acquaintance with the transgressors and their sin. This knowledge makes him fully informed with respect to those upon whom he is to pour out the fire of his vial, while the blasphemy he witnesses upon pouring out the vial qualifies him to proclaim that the grapes, the wickedly disobedient, are ripe for the winepress of wrath.

The false prophet had attempted to extend the worship of the Beast by calling fire down from heaven. Rev. 13:13. But it was reserved for God to send that fire; and when it came, terrible was it on those who had used it in deception. It was terrible also on those who, in full sight of God’s warning, went into the deception. No wonder Joel turned from the scene and begged unborn generations to prepare against that coming season, to escape the terrible calamity.

But another blow is to smite the blessed gift of light: the kingdom of the Beast is to be plunged from the extreme presence of light to its extreme absence. While the fiery atmosphere from the sun is prostrating men and withering fields, the fifth angel departs on his retributive mission. “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the Beast; and his kingdom was full of DARKNESS; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.” This is the culminating stroke which is aimed directly at the Beast. It falls first upon his throne, then strikes through to all the inhabitants of his kingdom. This apostate and his followers had rejected the light of God; now God deprives them of physical light. The darkness into which they are plunged must be actual darkness, since the Scripture presents them as already darkened spiritually.

What kind of darkness is it—what is its nature?—Alas, its nature is only too apparent. Why will men reject the light of God that such a blow as this must fall? Even as disobedient men are shut up in spiritual darkness, so are they shut in actual darkness. I may place myself in darkness by having the light withdrawn, or, while the light is shining, by simply closing my eyes; but darkness reigns supreme when the eyes are closed in death.

Is not this the case here? Let the record of this plague be examined, and such will be found to be the manner of its coming. The object upon which this vial is poured out is the throne, the reigning seat, of the Beast. That it is the throne we know, because the Greek word here translated “seat,” in the Revised Version is more correctly rendered “throne.” In consequence of the throne receiving this vial, the kingdom is darkened.

Why was the throne of the Beast the object of this punishment?—Because the fifth is the last of the vials which have to do directly with the Beast. The two remaining plagues are more extensive. The sixth includes all reigning monarchs in its disaster, while the seventh spreads far and wide the desolation of the whole earth. But the fifth is the finishing stroke directly against the papacy; and as such, it is similar to the last plague which fell upon the Egyptians. That dreadful visitation, demanding the life of the firstborn, brought darkness to all the homes of Egypt, from the monarch on his throne to the humblest subject. It was not spiritual darkness, but physical darkness, the darkness of death. “And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon.”

The darkness of death, closing the eyes to light, and bringing grief to the bereaved, falls upon the Beast, from the reigning pontiff on his throne to his least follower. How many shall perish in this visitation we do not know, but so terrible is the grief that the survivors gnaw their tongues. As the forces of a mighty empire invading the territory of a government, small yet well-beloved by the people, bring darkness on that land when they spread confusion, terror, and desolation, and fill the land with grief, so does darkness come upon the kingdom of the Beast. The kingdom of heaven levels its blow at the throne of the Beast; confusion and death fill his kingdom; and uniting with the preceding plague, horrifying grief finds utterance only in inexpressible agony.

“And [they] repented not of their deeds.” The day of repentance is gone. The time to make right all wrongs was before Jesus left the mercy seat. Now it is too late. Such calamities as these are unbearable enough under any circumstances. But when the unrepenting soul has forfeited God’s helping presence, who can estimate the greatness of these sufferings? Let all take heed and make their peace with God while the day of mercy lingers.

With the firstborn lying dead within his arms, the Egyptian king rose up in maddened frenzy, and ordered his armies to pursue to battle the escaping hosts of Israel. So the Beast, frenzied by the fearful stroke of the fifth plague, arises with the kings26of the earth and their armies to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. And as the hosts of Pharaoh marched forward to their own destruction, so the sixth angel prepares the way for the self-devouring conflicts across the dried-up waters of the Euphrates. B. G. Wilkinson.

THE OFFENSE OF THE CROSS

By Uriah Smith

IN Gal. 5:11 we read: “Then is the offense of the cross ceased.” These were the words of Paul, in contemplating the persecutions he suffered on account of his labors in behalf of the gospel. To quote the whole passage, he says: “And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased.” His language shows that the offense of the cross never has ceased, and never can cease; it is the spring and source of all the hatred and persecution that have ever been manifested toward the people of God.

It is held by some that some of the false apostles, hearing that Paul had circumcised Timothy (Acts, 16:3), which must have occurred about this time, reported him as being in favor of circumcision, and therefore an advocate of their doctrine. To this the apostle replies, Did I advocate circumcision, is it likely that I should suffer persecution from the Jews? And were I a friend of that practice, and an advocate of circumcision, with all the meaning in it which the Jews attach to it, then what of the doctrine that I have been preaching, that salvation can come only through the sacrifice of Christ? That which is such an offense to the Jews would certainly cease to be such, and they would look upon Christianity in a more favorable light.

“The offense of the cross” is that which is esteemed offensive by the opposers of Christianity. It is the offense that arises through truth coming in contact with error, and light with darkness. And why should there be any offense on the part of error and darkness on this account? The truth and the light are not responsible for it. The religion of Jesus is the most peaceful, mild, and benevolent system ever promulgated among men. Yet wherever it appears, there offense at once arises. It has been assailed by the bitterest hate all along its history; and it is not one whit more palatable to the world than it has been in the past.

We have entered upon a new century. There are those who are looking for a good time coming—the triumphs of the cross over all lands, and over all evil. But has the offense of the cross ceased? So far from that, we are just now stepping into the outer circles of the most stupendous conflict between truth and error that the world has ever seen. The Church has endured ages of persecution; but the dragon, representing the organized forms of opposition to the work of God, still continues to cultivate his spirit, and put forth his efforts against the truth. The Church is now reduced to a small remnant, a “little flock;” but the dragon, not satisfied with all past oppressions, still fans the flames of opposition, and is “wroth” with the woman, and goes “to make war” with the Church, the woman, and the remnant of her seed. The cross continues an offense. The dragon and his followers contemplate nothing short of the extermination of the followers of truth, that the earth may be rid, once and for all, of their hateful presence.

But the extermination of the truth is not to be the conclusion of this controversy according to the order that the Lord has marked out in His word. The last generation are overcomers. They are to get the victory over the Beast, and his Image, and his mark, and the number of his name. The century is now opened which is to be characterized by this conflict, and this signal victory. We shall not have entered far into the century before all these things will be accomplished. For “in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished.” For over fifty-six years the seventh angel has been sounding; but inasmuch as his sounding extends a thousand years beyond the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the righteous dead, the years already elapsed may easily be included in the expression, “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound.”

The offense of the cross. That means anything that makes the cross, or religion, seem offensive to the carnal mind. And why should it seem so to any one?—The cross is the central object in the scheme of the atonement; and the idea of an atonement, the necessity of being saved by another, offends man’s pride; for man naturally aspires to be his own savior. See this claim boldly and unblushingly affirmed in Spiritualism, and covertly insinuated in many other latter-day delusions. Assuming to be independent of God, men become the veriest slaves of every evil principle and every lawless passion of the human heart.

The teachings of the gospel are just as plain and simple as the opening letters of the alphabet; and this offends man’s science; for he must have something high sounding, abstruse, and hidden; some scientific presentment, in which the simple truth is covered up and hidden under pompous phrases.

The gospel addresses all men as sinners; and this offends the modern Pharisee.

The gospel comes as a revelation; and this offends all worldly philosophy, and the higher criticism, which claims to be able to discover and work out truth by its own wisdom.

The gospel insists upon a lofty holiness; and this offends all men who are in love with sin.

In what ways is this offense, on account of the cross, shown?—A very common way is by acts of persecution against believers; more frequently in the milder phases of persecution, in ridicule, reproach, sneering at Christians as old-fashioned, weak minded, narrow, self-conceited, etc. Even the professed friends of the cross show sometimes that the offense of the cross still clings to them. They do this by failing to preach the cross; by smoothing down the straight testimony of the word, failing to plunge the probe of the gospel to the very heart, that the sinner may tremble under his sins. They preach a Christless, bloodless gospel, filling the time and space of discourse with essays on worldly themes, sensational comments on the topics of the day, or character sketches of notable personages who happen just then to be in the public eye. And all this is mixed up with discounting vital portions of the word of God as only ebullitions of human allegory, and end by denying the divinity of Him who died on the cross of Calvary for the sins of the world. These are some of the numerous ways in which men show that the cross of Christ offends them. What supreme folly to be offended by that which God has ordained; that which alone is full of wisdom and beauty; that which must win the day in the long contest between truth and error, and that which alone can save the sinner.

Have we at any time been offended at the cross? and now do we find it to be the one hope of our hearts, the delight of our souls, and the boast of our tongues? Then let us rejoice in this grace. Let us not be distressed by the offense of the cross, even if it is shown to us in bitterest persecution. This will be an acceptable token that the Lord recognizes us as His people; for if we were of the world, the world would love its own; and “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

Joseph Cook relates the following incident: “I opened an ancient book written in opposition to Christianity, by Arnobius. I read: ‘Our gods are not displeased with you Christians for worshiping the Almighty God. But you maintain the Deity of one who was put to death on the cross, believing Him to be yet alive. And you adore Him in daily supplications.’ Men showed me in Rome, in the Kircherian Museum, a square foot of the plaster of a palace, not many years ago uncovered on the Palatine Hill. On the poor clay was traced a cross bearing a human figure, with a brute’s head. The figure was nailed to the cross, and before it a soldier was represented kneeling, and extending his hands in the Greek posture of devotion. Underneath all was scratched in rude lettering in Greek, ‘Alexamenos adores his God.’ That representation of the central thought of Christianity was made in a jeering moment by some rude soldier in the days of Caracalla; but it blazes there now in Rome, the most majestic monument of its age in the world.”

The cross of Christ is the only lever which hitherto hath turned the world upside down, and made men forsake their sins. It has not yet lost its power. It is yet to make a final display of its strength, and lighten the earth with its glory. Rev. 18:1. Let us enter the new century with the thought and the purpose of the apostle firmly fixed in our hearts: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”

U. S.

CHURCH FEDERATION IN JAPAN

By B. O. Wade

The third session of the General Conference of Protestant Missions in Japan met in Tokio, Oct. 24-31, 1900. About four hundred and fifty or nearly two thirds of the whole number of Protestant missionaries in Japan, were in attendance. The first conference, which met in Yokohama in 1872, had a membership of twenty; and at the second, or Osaka Conference, about two hundred were present.

In many respects this was one of the most remarkable religious meetings that has ever convened. But the majority in attendance failed to recognize its remarkable features. The “large number in attendance, the remarkable spirit of unity prevailing, the high grade of the papers and addresses presented, the serious tone of the ensuing discussions, the earnest purpose manifest in the various resolutions passed,” etc., have all received praise.

But it was not the prominence of these features that most characterized this as a truly remarkable gathering. There were other momentous and weighty matters seriously discussed, which gave to this conference a distinction that will cause it to stand out as a prominent and important factor not only in the religious world of the East, but also as one whose influence upon the home boards will be no less marked. From David’s summary of God’s dealing with His people, we learn that God’s word is everlasting righteousness; “the rule of His judgment is consonant to His counsels from eternity, and will direct His sentence for eternity;” and that His word is a law, and that law is the truth. From this I apprehend that were David able to listen to the deliberations of a conference that would presume to modify that which God in His wisdom had established forever and ever, we would have a testimony to the remarkableness of this assembly.

That this conference has placed itself on record as having deliberately meddled with that eternal code is evident from the result of an interesting discussion of a paper on “Family Religion and the Practical Observance of the Lord’s Day,” presented by the Rev. C. B. Mosley, of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Abundance of evidence was introduced into this discussion, showing that the Sabbath (Sunday) is sadly neglected, as well as “openly and flagrantly desecrated, by church-members;” also that the time has come when the safety of society and the success of missions necessitates, and the home boards would demand, that the church in Japan take a definite stand upon the Sabbath question.

All this, of course, was true, and much of it in a sense in which the majority in that conference were unable to discern. As a natural consequence, steps were taken looking toward the organization of a Japan Sabbath union, to thus “tone up the Sabbath.” The president and the secretary of the conference were appointed to bring the churches and missions in touch with the establishing of this union, and seven vice-presidents were appointed to act with seven others appointed by the Evangelical Alliance of Japan, to constitute the board of managers for this Sabbath union. The men selected, the missions represented, and the order of appointment are as follows: Rev. W. B. Buncombe, Church of England;27Rev. A. T. Howard, United Brethren; Rev. A. A. Bennett, D. D., American Baptist Union; Rev. Julius Soper, D. D., Methodist Episcopal; Prof. M. N. Wyckoff, Reformed Church Mission of U. S. A.; Rev. A. C. Borden, Methodist Church of Canada; Rev. H. H. Guy, Christian Church.

As this body, representing nearly every church in Japan, has taken this action, and thus committed itself to the consideration of the Sabbath observance and Sabbath “tonics,” it becomes the duty of such as keep the Sabbath to assist them in this work by giving them a reason for the hope which is in them. Now that no one may for a moment believe that this conference showed a zeal for the law and the Sabbath of the Lord, we will reproduce some of the “guarded” statements, that all may see the intention of the conference; for this will be the “Japan Sabbath Union.”

A certain Presbyterian missionary from China pointed out the necessity of “being guarded as to what is meant by the term ‘Sabbath day,’” whether it is “Saturday,” “the seventh-day Sabbath,” or “Sunday,” the “Christian Sabbath,” or “Lord’s day.” An attempt was then made by Mr. Snodgrass to substitute the words “Lord’s day” for the word “Sabbath.” This lacking a second, the difficulty was settled by the Rev. E. H. Jones, of the American Baptist Union, who stated quite emphatically that “we will not give the Sabbath up to Seventh-day Adventists by any substitution of ‘Lord’s day’ or ‘Sunday.’”

Every vestige of doubt as to whether the “Sabbath” meant the seventh day according to the commandment, or the first day, was swept away, and that without the “command” for it. It was repeatedly admitted that there is no “Scriptural authority for the observance of Sunday, it having come about naturally; therefore no command was needed.”

The reasons for, and methods of, Sabbath observance were then considered. It was stated that “the Sabbath is wholly religious,” and “must be observed by holy rest and spending the time in worship.” Further, in this lay “the purity and power of the Church; and departure from it robbed her of the same.” All this was affirmed, but the only real evidence of the benefits to be derived from the observance of Sunday was the fact that a few non-Christian business men claimed that they received better returns by closing their shops on Sunday than by keeping open the entire week. One of these places is known as the Sunday-closing shop.

Now if the Scriptures did not speak expressly concerning such departures from the faith, and if it was impossible to discover a parallel movement in past ages, we would assuredly be left to conjecture as to the real object of the proposed Japan Sabbath Union, which, when it is fully understood and shall have received life, will be revealed as nothing less than a dress parade of the Image of the Beast. Thus it is evident that he who fails to secure a view of the Beast has everlastingly exposed himself to the deceptive power manifested in this review of the Image of the Beast.

In the fourth century, when the Church had, by departing from the simplicity and purity of the gospel, “lost the power of God and godliness, she greedily grasped for the power of the State and ungodliness” to force from those within her ranks a recognition of her discipline. In that we find the original of the present movement. That had, as this has, for its chief end the exaltation of Sunday in opposition to the Sabbath. Of the work in Constantine’s time we read: “All things whatsoever it was duty to do on the Sabbath we have transferred to the Lord’s day.” “He also mentioned the observance of the Lord’s day, which the Jews called the first day of the week, in which God should be served with prayer and supplication;” “that one day should be regarded as a special occasion for religious worship,” without any “reference to the fourth commandment or the resurrection of Christ.”

When the Church had secured all this, it was discovered that those whose religion was not an affair of the heart and the life still remained in the office, work-shop, or theater on the first day of the week, instead of congregating to the church. The better way of instruction having failed, the clergy secured the permission to accomplish their purpose by “fear of punishment or by pain,” and in “this way the Church received help from the State for the furtherance of her ends.” The reason for this was “that the faithful might be free from all disturbances.”

Briefly, the present condition in Japan is this: The first day of the week is the sabbath, without reference to the commandment. The Church confesses that she can not, with the present condition, command a proper respect for the Sabbath, the desecration of which has robbed her of her power. The observance of the day must consist in rest from labor, and in spending the time in worship, the sacredness of which “if men will violate they must go outside the habitation of other men” (The Voice, Tokio). This, when followed to its logical conclusion, will “give life unto the Image of the Beast, that the Image of the Beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast should be killed.”

Nor in this have they left themselves without witness as to their intention; for the American Sabbath Union was held up as a model, and the conference was repeatedly cautioned against accepting any resolution that would not be approved by the home board, lest they cut down the appropriations. This American Sabbath Union has as its basis the divine obligation of the Sabbath formulated in the fourth commandment, interpreted and applied by Christ to the Christian sabbath; and its object the preservation of that sabbath. To this end the American Sabbath Union has adopted the principle that “it is better for a few to suffer than that the whole nation should lose its sabbath,” which is the same argument that is going forth from pulpit and press in Japan; and is simply the repetition of Augustine’s idea, the germ of the papacy.

The dragon is wroth with the woman, and has gone forth to “make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Wherefore let sin be broken off by righteousness, and iniquity by showing mercy to the poor; receive the counsel of Eph. 6: 13-19, and pray that utterance may be given unto us, that we may speak as we ought to speak, in order that this dear people whom the Lord is turning to Him may hear the saving truth of the Third Angel’s Message.

B. O. WADE.

Tokio, Japan.

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