p. 11 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 5. (1/31/1906)

FEDERATION OF CHURCHES

By Alonzo T. Jones

A FALSE LEAD.

The Aim of the United Church.

IN the conference there was constantly held forth and urged as "the transcendent aim of the united church," and therefore of this Federation, "the conquest of the world for Christ, and the transformation of the state and kingdoms of the world into the kingdom of God on earth."

It was impossible not to see that this idea was the spring of the whole conception and design of the conference, and of the Federation that was established. The churches must federate, so that by their combined influence pressure can be brought to bear on the officials of city, county, state, and nation, and, logically and finally, of the world, in order that city, county, state, nation, and the world shall be "subdued to Christ." Federation must be accomplished so that the "combined influence" of the churches, "in all matters moral and social" "in every relation of human life" shall "promote the application of the law of Christ" to the conversion of every soul; and so the bringing of individuals, hamlets, towns, cities, counties, states, the nation, and the world, in subjection to Christ, and so to the full establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth.

Now this whole conception and aim is an utterly false lead. No evidence, no thought, of the Bible sustains it. The Scriptures from beginning to end are solidly against it.

What Christ Declared.

Christ said, "The good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one." And of these two classes He said, "Let both grow together until the harvest." And of the harvest He said, "The harvest is the end of the world." By the explicit word of Christ therefore, "the children of the kingdom" and "the children of the wicked one" are to grow "together" in this world "until the end of the world." And then, and accordingly, He says, "As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world." The tares are never gathered into the kingdom of God; they are "gathered and burned in the fire." It is "in the end of the world" that they are so gathered; and they grow in this world "together" with the children of the kingdom, "until the end of the world." Matt. 13:29, 30, 38-40.

The second coming of Christ, in His great power and glory, brings the "harvest," which "is the end of the world;" for so it is written: "I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud sat one like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap; for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped." Rev. 14:14-16.

Again, of that time it is written: "To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day." 2 Thess. 1:7-10.

That Scripture is literally impossible, with the conversion of the world. But "the Scripture can not be broken;" therefore the conversion of the world is neither promised nor contemplated in the Scriptures.

Again, of "that day" and the coming of the Lord, and the end, it is written: "I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written that no man knew, but He Himself, and He was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations; and He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." Rev. 19:11-16.

Foes Against Christ to the End.

That Scripture also is impossible with the conversion of the world, and with the nations being subject to Christ in righteousness. And yet there is more to this passage of Scripture itself; for in the same connection, it is further

said: 'And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth; and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.' Rev. 19: 19-21.

Instead of this world ending with all converted, or with all the nations the kingdom of God, it ends with false religion and the kingdoms of the earth and their armies in grand alliance under the leadership of unclean spirits, 'gathered together to make war on Him,' the Lord Christ, as He comes in His glory. And the power of deception of these unclean spirits is so great that they do actually deceive the nations into this thing. This gathering together of the nations is to Armageddon; for so it is written of these unclean spirits, that they come out of the mouth of the dragon, and of the beast, and of the false prophet, and 'go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.' And the place of their gathering is stated: 'He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.'

And then, the Word continues, 'The seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city [Babylon] was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations FELL; and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.'

Succeeding, Not Converting.

Such is the condition and the order of things in the earth and amongst the nations at the end of the world, when the kingdom of God in its fulness comes and is set up on the earth. And this is exactly the story of the Bible—Old Testament as well as New. In the book of Daniel it is declared that when the kingdom of God does come and shall be set up on this earth, it 'shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms;' that they become as the chaff of the summer thrashing-floor, and the wind carries them away and no place is found for them; and then the kingdom of God becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth, 'and it shall stand forever.' Dan. 2: 34, 35, 44, 45. This is told also in Isaiah, in Jeremiah, in Ezekiel, in Micah, in Joel, in Zechariah, in Zephaniah, in the Psalms, in the Kings, in Judges, in Deuteronomy, in Genesis—in the whole Book of God.

Therefore again we say that this whole conception and aim, as designed, as advocated, and as formulated, in the Federation of Churches, is utterly a false lead. Yet these people believe that the world is to be converted, and turned into the kingdom of God on the earth, and that their Federation is to be the mighty means of accomplishing this. And they really believe it. No one could think for a moment of charging them with insincerity, with dishonest purposes, or with evil designs.

Unquestionably they mean well in what they are aiming at.

Nevertheless, still more unquestionably the thing which they are aiming at is altogether wrong in the sense that no such thing will or can ever be; and they are altogether wrong in it, in the sense that they are expecting, and working for, and toiling unto, a thing that is utterly a blank. It is a blank so far as the idea, the conception, their aim, and their hope, are concerned; but in the awful results of this mistaken notion and false lead, it is the farthest possible from being a blank, either to themselves or to any others.

Results to Follow the False Lead.

And the wickedness and the horror of the results is in nowise lessened by the fact that these people are entirely honest and sincere in their views and purposes. It is an impossible end that they seek. It is a false lead that they are following. And men can be just as honest and sincere in using false means in following a false lead to a mistaken end, as they can be in holding the mistaken view itself. For error never sanctifies; it only blinds the discernment and fosters the passions.

But beyond all this, these people are not building only for themselves, nor for a day. They are building for all time, and for others who shall follow them. And they simply can not guarantee that those who come after them in this Federation shall all be as honest and sincere as themselves now may be. Indeed, in view of the flood of accessions of selfish and designing men that will inevitably flow into the churches to become the most active life of the Federation, it can with perfect safety be guaranteed that those who shall come after these in the Federation, will not be as well meaning and sincere as these can readily be believed to be.

In this Federation, these men are building a machine that is to be operated in all the years to come. If it were to be operated only by themselves, it might be operated without much material damage to state or people. Yet even in that case there is no certainty, that it would be so operated; because it is so easy, so natural, and in so many ways deemed 'justifiable,' to operate it otherwise. But when it shall pass from the stage of infancy and from the hands of apparent innocency, to the stage of active maturity, and to the hands of hard, designing determination, then the machine will be operated only to the subversion of the state and to the misery of the nation. This is certain. It is so certain that there can be no just or reasonable doubt of it.

An Example of Old.

For this is not the first instance of federation. It is not even the first instance of federation for the conversion of the world and the turning of city, state, and nation into the kingdom of God on earth. All this now is only in the plain likeness of the procedure in the third and fourth centuries, by which the full-formed Papacy was developed. In the procedure at that time, the Emperor Constantine, according to the will and purpose of the 'combined influence' of the church-power, 'framed his earthly government according to the pattern of that divine original, feeling strength in its conformity to the monarchy of God:' 'by the appointment of the Caesars, fulfils the predictions of the holy prophets, according to what they uttered ages before; 'And the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom;'' and 'by bringing those

whom He rules on earth to the only-begotten Word and Saviour, renders them fit subjects of His kingdom.'—Eusebius.

And the way in which Constantine brought to the Saviour those whom he ruled on earth, and made them fit subjects of the kingdom of God, is illustrated in the following:

Victor Constantinus Maximus Augustus, to the heretics. Understood now, by this present statute, ye Novatians, Valentinans, Marciorites, Paulicians, ye who are called Cataphrygians, and all ye who devise and support heresies by means of your private assemblies. . . . We give warning by this present statute that none of you henceforth presume to assemble yourselves together. We have directed, accordingly, that you be deprived of all the houses in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies; and our care in this respect extends so far as to forbid the holding of your superstitions and senseless meetings, not in public merely, but in any private house or place whatsoever. Let those of you, therefore, who are desirous of embracing the true and pure religion, take the far better course of entering the Catholic Church, and uniting with it in holy fellowship, whereby you will be enabled to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. . . . For it is an object worthy of that prosperity which we enjoy through the favor of God, to endeavor to bring back those who in time just were living in the hope of future blessing, from all irregularity and error, to the right path, from darkness to light, from vanity to truth, from death to salvation.'—Eusebius's 'Life of Constantine,' Book III, chapters LXIV, LXV.

That which the federation at that time thus began, by Constantine, it completed by the Emperor Theodosius. Thus was the Roman empire 'converted;' thus that empire was made to be 'the kingdom of God on earth.' But it was no sooner well accomplished than ruin overtook it, because of its essential hypocrisy and iniquity, and swept it to eternal annihilation.

This Federation now will find its Constantine and its Theodosius. By these it will accomplish the 'conversion' of the nation, and by a world Federation will also accomplish the 'conversion' of the world, and the turning of the nation and the world into 'the kingdom of God on earth.' And when it shall be well accomplished, and they begin to congratulate themselves on the blessed 'peace and safety' assured by the grand success of their political gospel, then, because of the essential hypocrisy and iniquity of the whole thing at that time, 'sudden destruction shall come' (1 Thess. 5: 3) that shall sweep it all to eternal perdition, as shown in the scriptures quoted in the former part of this article.

The idea of the conversion of this world is a deception. The turning of the nations of this world into the kingdom of God on earth is a delusion. A federation to accomplish that thing is a snare. The people of this Federation of the Churches are in that deception; they are indulging that delusion, and they and multitudes of others will be caught by that snare.

There are thousands upon thousands of people in the nation who know the truth of the Scriptures concerning the kingdom of God and its coming on this earth. To all these who do know this truth, can there be any mightier incentive to make known to every soul that all-important truth, than is presented in the situation that has now been created by the formation and working of this Federation of the Churches in that deception, and led by the utterly false lead of that delusion?

May the Lord in His mercy again bring the

day when “the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” Dan. 11:32.

ALONZO T. JONES.

[The next article in this series discusses “The Fundamental Error.”]

“IS THIS A CHRISTIAN NATION?”

By U. G. Adkins

THIS was the theme of Dr. White’s discourse in this city (Oakland, Cal.) recently, in the course of which he uttered some palpable truths, words which should be often proclaimed if our country is to be saved from a deluge of despotism as black as that of the Dark Ages. Coming from one connected with and representing that large body of professing Christians who have bent every energy to get local, state, and national law-making powers committed to religious legislation, his words should have no little weight with the thinking public. He says:

This allegiance to Christ is voluntary, not compelled or coerced. True faith can not be forced. It can not be planted in the hearts of the people by statutes or laws, but only can be written there by the hand of God. Christianity would gain no real power over the people by being declared the state religion and placed in the Constitution. The worst calamity which ever happened to Christianity was when it was made the religion of the Roman empire under Emperor Constantine. A thousand years of perversion of it followed. Let us thank God that in these United States the supremacy of Christ is not by edict, but by the unconstrained, untrammeled love of the hearts of free people. This is God’s plan for us.

To all of which every lover of liberty should say, Amen. But since “like causes always produce like results,” and if “the worst calamity which ever happened to Christianity was when it was made the religion of the Roman empire under Emperor Constantine,” would any better thing befall it were it now made the religion of the United States?—Assuredly not! And since, back there, “a thousand years of perversion of it followed,” for the simple reason, as the historian says, that “the church often used the state for the furtherance of her own ends,” would not the church down here, through her ministers, use the state also for the furtherance of selfish interests?—Of course she would, and one can even now get an inkling of what would be done, in some respects, by the way in which the Reform Bureau at Washington is abusing the franking privilege—for the wholesale distribution of literature at the government’s expense. And this, saying nothing of the many other evils that would surely follow—from defrauding the mails to persecuting dissenters, from the thumbscrew and the stocks to the whipping-post and the stake.

But Dr. White makes the mistake of saying:

The fact of religious liberty’s being granted is one of the best proofs that this is a Christian nation, for that is the spirit of true Christianity.

Let me ask, Who is it that grants this liberty? Who has the right, either ecclesiastical or civil, to grant me that liberty? I would also ask, If religious liberty is the spirit of true Christianity, could that liberty, as to the observance of any religious institution, be denied to anybody by the state, and that state still be a Christian state? If not, and of course it could not, then, when this nation, which is claimed to be Christian, shall take Sunday, a religious institution, and place it by act of legislation in the statute law of the land, is it not “the best proof” that this is not a Christian nation?

Dr. White most truthfully says:

Yet none of the matters enumerated are the real proofs that this is a Christian nation. It is not in constitutions, codes, laws, institutions, and public declarations that the real loyalty to Christ is proven, but in the heart-faith of the people.

So, then, let us “preach the Word,” in order that “Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith” unto the end, that victory may be sure. U. G. ADKINS.

IS IT A RELIGIOUS DUTY TO FAST?

ABSTAINING from food as a religious observance had considerable prominence among God's people in Old Testament days, and is mentioned a number of times in the New Testament. Is such fasting a Christian duty to-day? The question is asked by a Tennessee reader:

"We are anxious for a revival in our church, and some of our members think we should fast as well as pray. Jesus fasted, and He told His disciples to fast. Will you please, in your 'Notes on Open Letters,' give some views on this subject?"

There come times in every one's life when, under the burden of great sorrow, or the exaltation of an uplifting experience, or the pressure of an approaching ordeal, fasting is the only natural and acceptable condition of the body. It is well to fast then, until nature again demands the strength which food brings. Lighter eating than usual immediately before such special work as teaching or preaching is simply the part of wisdom; failure to heed this means poor work and an injured body. But there is no record that to abstain from food solely as a religious observance, apart from such circumstances as those noted, was enjoined as a duty by Jesus.

Fasting seems to have been one of the Pharisaical perversions of ceremonial observance which Jesus' disciples were deliberately taught to refrain from, and for which He and they were misunderstood and criticized. Even John's disciples asked Him: "Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not?" Our Lord's answer, that it was no time for fasting while He was with them, but that there would be occasion for it when He was crucified, points unmistakably to His teaching that mere fasting as such was no part of His followers' duty or service, but that fasting in time of great sorrow was a natural and proper thing.

Entirely in accord with this was Jesus' recognition of the fact that there were times when His disciples would, for special cause, wish to fast; and He did not forbid this, but He cautioned them against Pharisaical ostentation: "when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance . . . that they may be seen of men to fast. . . . Be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father who is in secret." This was no enjoining of fasting upon His disciples as a duty, but a caution as to how not to fast when they felt impelled to do so.

It is significant to note that the English and American revisers have omitted, either as not well authenticated or as incorrectly translated, the word "fasting" in Matt. 17:21, Mark 9:29, Acts 10:30, and 1 Corinthians 7:5, thus eliminating it as in any sense a duty enjoined either by Jesus or by Paul. Where fasting is mentioned by Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:5 and 11:27, it is as a hardship or privation to be endured when providentially sent, not as a religious form. It was natural that some of the early Christians, Jews, and Gentiles, should have practised fasting as part of their religious ceremony; but it does not appear to have been laid upon them as a duty, nor would it seem to be a formal duty to-day. That most of us would be better off, however, physically and spiritually, for less eating and some judicious fasting, would also seem to be equally beyond question.—Sunday-School Times.

THEE ONLY.

By John Brownlie

I WOULD not have a hand to guide But Thine; For Thou hast trod where sinners stray, And knowest well life’s troubled way, And mine.

I would not have a will to rule But Thine; For Thou art wise as Thou art good, And none can better choose what should Be mine.

O, I would tread the sorest path For Thee; For Thou canst make the roughest plain, Give joy for grief and calm the pain For me. —Rev. John Brownlie.

WORKING FOR GOD.

By Ellen G. White

WHEN the Master went away He gave to every man his work. Not one was excused.

The influence of the Spirit of God is thus brought to unite with man's human power, so that there is a co-operation. The God of heaven does not work for man without his co-operation. The Spirit of God co-operates with us, and our powers co-operate with the Spirit of God. Thus we become laborers together with God. As we are laborers with God and work out our own salvation, it is not we that work, but God that worketh in us, to will and to do of His own good pleasure.

Thus we acknowledge always that in the great work of redemption, Jesus Christ is the ladder, the base of it resting upon the earth, and the topmost round reaching into the highest heaven; that He connects earth with heaven, and finite man with the infinite God.

The powers that God has given us in reason, in ability, are God's gifts, and it is for us to use them for His service to employ in doing good to mankind around us. We need not think that because we do not go to foreign countries that there is nothing for us to do. There is missionary work to be done right around your own door. We want to know how to bless humanity, to know and to meet the high claims that God has upon us; to acknowledge that all our reasoning powers are a gift from God, and that we must put every talent to use. We must use every ability that God has given us, and the education in our life will never cease. It will continue reaching upward and forward making the very most of our God-given abilities in time and eternity.

MRS. E. G. WHITE.

God’s Traveling Preachers

By Charles Haddon Spurgeon

SUN, moon, and stars are God's traveling preachers; they are apostles upon their journey, confirming those who regard the Lord; and judges on circuit, condemning those who worship idols.—C. H. Spurgeon on Psalm 19.

Perseverance in Soul Winning

By The Revivalist

BE persevering; if one effort fails, try another. There are many ways of reaching results. Persist until you succeed. Brother Persistence has won scores of revival victories on the very ground where Brother Feeble Effort failed. The word discourage is not in the successful soul-winner’s vocabulary. God forbids it, and it may be as bad to yield to it as it is to steal.—The Revivalist.

DESTRUCTION OF OUR PRINTING-PLANT AND TRACT-SOCIETY OFFICE IN VALPARAISO.

By F. H. Westphal

We are exceedingly sorry to have to communicate to our friends and readers of the Signs of the Times the fact that the fire which destroyed the Pasaje William's buildings in Valparaiso destroyed all the equipments of our printing-plant, which had been accumulated by great sacrifice on the part of our brethren, and by careful management. All the equipments of the tract society were also destroyed. In one short hour all was turned into ashes.

Why the Lord permitted this, we do not know, but we do know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Rom. 8:28. In this calamity there is a blessing in disguise. We may not see it now, but shall see it hereafter. If we wait patiently, God will open our eyes and reveal to us His kind, fatherly care for His work even in permitting this calamity.

When Jacob was robbed of his son Joseph, who was sold into Egypt, he knew not why such calamity should befall him. He thought that he must go down into the grave in sorrow, mourning for his son, whom he thought had been destroyed by some wild beast. How wonderfully God opened his eyes, when he saw that the Lord had sent Joseph beforehand into Egypt to prepare the way for the safety of his people! What joy filled Jacob's heart when the blessing disguised in the great calamity was made known unto him!

The three brethren in Babylon were brought into the great calamity of being cast into the sevenfold-heated furnace, but what joy and privilege was theirs, to find that Christ had united Himself with them in their affliction, and saved them from any harm! This experience has been recorded for the benefit and comfort of all succeeding generations, and is a testimony to us that in all our afflictions He also is afflicted. He did not permit the three brethren to enter the fiery furnace alone. Christ entered the furnace with the believers, and it is also a testimony to us that those who persecute the children of God persecute Christ. When Nebuchadnezzar cast three men into the furnace, he found that he had cast in four. He could not cast the believing children of God into the furnace without casting Christ in.

There are so many examples of the Lord's kindness in His dealing with the children of men, in permitting calamities. Daniel in the lion's den, Elijah in his different experiences under sentence of death, David hunted as a wild beast by Saul, and many others, are examples to which we might refer.

We are now living in a time when calamities of different kinds are taking place in rapid succession. The daily papers speak of floods, of famines, of murders, of war and rumors of war, of destructive storms, of tempests, of earthquakes, of robberies, of dishonest dealings, and of distrust among the nations and people. All these things speak of the fact and announce to the believing heart that Jesus is about to return. They are omens of the breaking day, and the coming morn. We are almost home, and soon our Saviour will come to gather His people to a heavenly country.

There will be strikes and disturbances of different kinds in most all of the large cities. It may be a warning of the Lord, in permitting our property to be destroyed, for us to seek some rural district for our publishing plant. In such a place we would be more free from the furious elements of the world. We shall ask God to guide us, and then move as He opens the way.

It is evident that we shall need new equipments for printing. The old press served us well, and I believe the brethren who donated in helping get it have received rich rewards for their sacrifices. This press has preached the truth to many thousands, and many have received the message of light by this means. The Señales and the Revista have been printed several years on this press; also the Sabbath-school lesson pamphlets, and several tracts of four to six pages. The tract, "Los Diez Mandamientos" (sixteen pages), was also published on this press. Thirteen thousand were published, and over ten thousand circulated, while the remaining number were destroyed in the fire.

We hope that all the friends of the truth will prayerfully ask themselves what donation they can make to help purchase a new press. The new press will have to be more modern than the old one, and will necessarily cost more money. We shall have to publish to a greater extent in the future than in the past, for the message will have to be published largely by the printed page. Send all your donations to the Mission Board, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. The Board will faithfully forward the money to us. F. H. Westphal.

A BOGUS SAINT.

By C. E. Milton

IT is very difficult for those born and educated in Protestant countries to appreciate the importance that Catholics attach to the worship of their "saints."

We are accustomed to treat this matter lightly, and to smile at their credulity in believing such absurd teachings. But the Catholic, on the contrary, will use the argument drawn from the so-called miracles of the saints as his most powerful weapon when all other means fail.

A priest was commissioned by his bishop to go and try to win back to the Church of Rome, a professor who has been converted to the truth here at Rome. He tried the arguments based on love of family, money, and position, but these all failed of having the desired effect; then as a final master-stroke, he suggested that he would pay the professor's expenses to take a trip to Lourdes to see the famous statue of the "Madonna," which has a reputation for working miracles. He felt sure that this would do him good, and convince him that the Catholic Church is the true church, as God favors them with miracle-working power.

This belief in the efficacy of saint-worship is so deeply rooted in the Catholic breast that it is one of the last vestiges of Catholicism to disappear in the new converts to Protestantism. In fact, some members of the other churches that have been "converts" for a number of years still see no harm in conserving an image of some favorite saint with the hope that it may do them some good. Of course, with us the problem of saint-worship is very much more simple of solution. For believing as we do that all the dead lie silently in the grave until the resurrection, there is no difficulty in showing that prayers to the "saints" are of no avail, as these "saints" can neither hear us nor help us.

Then, recently an event has taken place that ought to shake the confidence even of Catholics somewhat in their "saints." There is an image of a Roman soldier that has been found until recently in a number of churches here in Rome, and elsewhere, which is worshiped under the name of "Santo Espidito." This "saint" is said to have worked many miracles, and, as a consequence, his image has a large number of silver hearts hung on its shrine as presents from its faithful devotees for favors bestowed. But now it appears that this saint never existed, but was made through a mistake.

Some French nuns about fifty years ago asked the pope that he might send them a bone from the martyrs, disinterred from the Catacombs. The pope complied with the request, and the bone was sent in a box upon which was written the Latin

word "Expedit," which means "sent," and by which expression the pope intended to indicate that the bone had been sent according to the request. But the nuns, ignorant of the meaning of the term, took it for the name of the saint, and therefore called him Saint Expedit, and as the bone was supposed to be from the Catacombs, they decided that the person to whom the bone pertained was a Roman hero and consequently made an image of a soldier to represent the saint. But now the mistake has been discovered, and the church authorities have asked that the saint be removed from the churches. But the people of Naples are so fond of the "saint," that they say they will not give him up be he true or false, and are prepared to defend him even to the using of force.

This fact in itself ought to convince one that this saint-worship is not founded on reality, but on sentiment and superstition. And if to a bogus saint so many miracles have been attributed, surely the many so-called miracles of other saints do not argue anything in favor of their being living, working agencies. O how much these Catholic idolators need to know the truth!

C. E. MILTON.

Rome, Italy.

SUPREME LOVE.

By Archbishop Trench

He might have built a palace at a word, Who sometimes had not where to lay His head; Time was when He who nourished crowds with bread Would not one meal unto Himself afford. Twelve legions girded with angelic sword Were at His back, the scorned and buffeted! He healed another's scratch; His own side bled, Side, feet, and hands with cruel piercings gored. O, wonderful the wonders left undone! And scarce less wonderful than those He wrought! O, self-restraint, passing all human thought, To have all power and be as having none! O, self-denying love, which felt alone For needs of others, never for its own! —Archbishop Trench.

OUR WORK AND WORKERS.

By Editor

THE permanent address of Brother D. T. Shireman is Toluca, N. C., via Cleveland Mills.

AT the last quarterly-meeting of the church at Madge, Texas, eight members were added.

A POSTAL card, dated January 15, says that at a meeting conducted by Brother Wm. Kennedy and L. A. Spring, at Palisade, Colo., twenty-six persons professed conversion, and twenty-two were baptized.

A NEW church building is being erected at Keene, Texas. This will add to the facilities of the academy, as the chapel can now be used for class and other school purposes. The enrolment of the school on January 8 was thirty-seven more than one year previous.

WRITING to the Welcome Visitor, Brother H. W. Miller says: "At present there are eight workers and one mission in Canton, China, which is the largest city in this empire. There are two workers and one mission in Amoy, in the Province of Fukien. In the Province of Honan, the oldest province in China, there are nine workers and four missions, making a total of nineteen missionaries and six missions."

FROM the Watchman we learn that Brother F. R. Schaeffer, who was vice-president and acting president most of last year in Mississippi Conference, has been elected president for the present year. The conference has prospered during the year, making good progress in the way of membership and clearing off its indebtedness. Brother and Sister Schaeffer were formerly successful workers in California, and we wish them abundant success in their difficult Southern field.

AT one of the meetings in Cleveland, Ohio, during the week of prayer, when a letter from Africa had been read, a poor sister arose and said, "I will give a half year's support for a native worker." Noting this incident in the Visitor, Brother D. E. Lindsey says: "The result was that, in addition to our usual annual offering, we raised over one hundred dollars to support a native worker for Brother Anderson in the heart of Africa." Were it not for the poor, the Gospel would not go to the world even as speedily as it does. If all the people in the world were rich, the Gospel could hardly be given universal proclamation by means of human agency.

WRITING to the Watchman from the Alabama Conference meeting, Elder Geo. I. Butler notes the election of Brother A. J. Haysmer as president for the current conference year. Brother Haysmer's experience as a president of a conference in the West Indies will stand him in hand in this field. On account of failing health, Brother W. L. McNeely was no longer able to bear the burden he has carried for several years. Sister Helen McKinnon was elected secretary and treasurer. In connection with the president, Brethren McNeely, W. S. Cruzan, and W. J. Blake were chosen as an executive committee. The conference office address is Fort Wayne.

WRITING to his father in this office, from Leicester, England, Brother J. D. Baker notes encouraging results from the work of himself and wife in giving treatments to the sick. This line of missionary work is making friends for our sanitarium there, and for the truth, both with the patients treated and the physicians of the city. The week of prayer there began December 30. The month of December is the time the brethren there devote largely to the special circulation of their periodicals—Present Truth and Good Health. Of these about 75,000 each are sold during that month; hence they postponed their week of prayer exercises until the season when everything is quiet and they can better attend the meetings.

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