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Review and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 4.

The Missionaries
Earlier text: The Missionaries

Is the Soul of Man Immortal?

By L. D. SANTEE

The Question Answered by Science and the Bible

L. D. SANTEE
Both science and the Bible treat of this subject. Inspiration asks, “If a man die, shall he live again?” Job 14:14. And science, through Joseph Cook, says, “Everything fundamentally Biblical is scientific, and everything fundamentally scientific is Biblical.”
A number of years ago, the Christian Register sent the following inquiries to some of the most distinguished scientists:— “Are there any facts in the possession of modern science which make it difficult to believe in the immortality of the personal consciousness? “Is there anything in such discoveries to support or strengthen a belief in immortality?”
The answers given to these questions by scholarly men, standing at the head in scientific research, will be read with deep interest. Said Charles A. Young, LL.D., professor of astronomy at Princeton College, New Jersey: “I think it must be frankly admitted that what is known about the functions of the brain and nervous system, does, to a certain extent, tend to make it difficult to believe in the immortality of the personal consciousness.”—“Science and Immortality,” page 15.
Thomas Hill, D. D., ex-president of Harvard College, says: “Many facts in the possession of modern science make it difficult to believe in immortality.”
Says Alexander G. Bell: “The possibility of thought, without a brain whereby to think, is opposed to experience.”
Says the distinguished scientist, F. L. Buchner: “Unprejudiced philosophy is compelled to reject the idea of an individual immortality and of a personal continuance after death.”—“Force and Matter.”
Said Lester F. Ward, A. M., of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.: “The consciousness, when scientifically examined, reveals itself as a quality of brain. It is a universal induction of science, that modification of brain is accompanied by modification of consciousness, and that the destruction of brain results in the destruction of consciousness. No exception to this law has ever been observed.”
We might extend these answers, but we forbear. It is certain that the voice of science is emphatically opposed to the doctrine of the immortality of the personal consciousness.
Now as we turn to the Bible, and examine this subject in the light of revelation, we are strongly impressed by the positive statement of the noted German commentator, Hermann Olshausen. It seems startling, when we consider the author: “The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the name are alike unknown to the entire Bible.”—Olshausen’s Commentary, Vol. IV, page 381, translated by A. C. Hendrick, D. D., 1858. Again, we ask the question that was asked at the beginning of this article, “If a man die, shall he live again?” On both sides of the question theological teachers have placed themselves. In a correspondence between Gerrit Smith and Albert Barnes, Mr. Barnes says: “In the distress and anguish of my own spirit, I confess that I see no light whatever as to why men must suffer to all eternity.”—“Practical Sermons,” page 123.
Says an eminent Baptist minister: “The Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, is utterly silent on the natural immortality of man, and the silence of the Scriptures corresponds to the silence of nature on this point. There is no place for endless misery or universal restoration.”
Paul asked, “What saith the Scriptures?” and the answer to this will be given in the rest of this article.
In the first place, why did God shut Adam away from the tree of life?—“Lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” Gen. 3:22. The conclusion is unavoidable, that after he had sinned, God prevented him from becoming immortal.
“Who [God] only hath immortality” (1 Tim. 6:16); and he is not willing to share it with his enemies. He has decreed that enemies against his government shall come to an end. 1 Peter 4:17. “What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” It is hard for us to realize how much the future of the race is affected by the answer to this question.
In nearly every home are wayward children, perhaps an unconverted companion, mayhap kind-hearted, but worldly parents. All are drifting toward—what? Our lives are bound up with theirs, and when they are carried out to return no more, our bosoms feel the stress and strain of heart-break, and we ask with agonizing persistence concerning their future, whether eternal agony will be theirs to suffer, or whether they will die the second death (Rev. 20:14), and after that, be as insensate as the material from which they were created.
Here is God’s answer: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Eze. 18:4. “The wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:15. Here death is three times threatened as the punishment for sin. It is easy for us to understand the nature of death in a land where all are dying.
Webster defines death as “cessation of life, extinction of bodily life;” and this is the punishment for sin,—extinction of bodily life. We have already read that God “only hath immortality;” in contrast the Bible asks, “Shall mortal man be more just than God?” Job 4:17. But I read farther, for God has not spoken uncertainly concerning the destruction of his enemies: “But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.” Ps. 37:20. To perish means to be destroyed, to come to nothing, to be blotted from existence. “For, lo, thine enemies shall perish.” Ps. 92:9. Again in Ps. 73:27, “For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish.”
In John 3:14-16, perish is twice used in contrast with everlasting life. God often uses the word perish in describing the future condition of the wicked. Turn to Nahum 1:9: “What do ye imagine against the Lord?” His statement in the verse following, sets forth the truth upon this point plainly, and indicates the subject about which they have been exercising their imagination. Can anything be plainer than his words, “He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry”? The one that imagines otherwise, imagines against the Lord, and does injustice to his character. David says of the workers of iniquity, “Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be.” Ps. 59:13. Again he says, “Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more.” Ps. 104:35. Isaiah adds his testimony in the twenty-eighth verse of the first chapter of his book: “And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.” In chapter 10, verses 16-18, he makes it still more emphatic, showing that the “consuming,” includes both “soul and body.”
The doctrine of eternal torture rests upon the assumption that all these texts are not true. Dare we take that position? “He that reproveth God, let him answer it.” Job 40:2. When the wicked are last noticed, they are “ashes.” Mal. 4:3. After this John sees a universe cleared of sin. “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Rev. 5:13.
Faithful, God-fearing men have voiced their abhorrence of the doctrine of endless misery, and have found it impossible to reconcile it with justice. God feels the same way. “What do ye imagine against the Lord?” Men representing churches widely different, unite in their protest against this horrible dogma. Says Canon Farrar: “I can not find one single text in all the Scriptures which, when fairly interpreted, teaches the common views about endless torment.”
Bishop Foster, in his book “Beyond the Grave,” page 130, says: “The idea of the endless conscious suffering of the wicked is the most unwelcome thought ever suggested to my mind. My whole soul revolts against it. It is the horror of all horrors. I do not now see either wisdom or goodness in the plan, and possibly I never shall.”
The following from Rev. J. E. Roberts, a prominent pastor of the Baptist Church, is worthy of thought: “I have heard it declared from the pulpit, I was taught it in the seminary, and, God forgive me, I have preached it, that God would be eternally glorified by the undying agonies of the eternally lost. I affirm that this is a direct contradiction of every one of Christ’s teachings about God. It changes the Fatherhood to hatred; the compassion, to cruelty; the love, to anger; and banishes from the world that now is, and that which is to come, the God and Father whom Christ revealed.”
Said the Rev. H. F. Oliver: “I was trembling on the brink of infidelity, on account of the great and terrible papal fiction,—endless misery.” And still another Baptist minister, Dr. Frost, makes the following strong statement in the Los Angeles Evening Express: “I abhor with all my being, the eternal conscious misery of the wicked.”
Immortality is a gift from Jesus Christ; “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish.” John 10:27, 28. It comes to us as a gift, through the mercy of Christ, and is not inherent; otherwise, it could not be given us. Again, we are told to “seek for glory and honor and immortality.” If we do this, we obtain eternal life.
We might say, in the words of another, “What a man hath, why doth he yet seek for?” We are of the race that God designates “mortal man.” When the Lord shall come, then “this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
Moline, Ill.

Hidden

By Abby F. Fiske

ABBY F. FISKE
I WILL hide thee, O My child! Naught shall come to thee of harm: Naught of ill will e’er betide: Only lean thou on my arm.
In the midst of sweetest slumbers, In the stillness of the night, In the depths of foaming breakers, In the hush of morning light,
In the cares of life, I’ll hide thee, Till at last thou reach the goal; Till thou there in heaven’s glory, Meet the Lover of thy soul.
Melrose, Mass.

Editorial

By Editor

Longing for the Blessing

WE have reached a time in the history of the church of God when we can confidently expect great things from him. The Scriptures of truth indicate that in the closing days of this message there will be a great outpouring of the Spirit of God. Of this the prophet Joel speaks as follows:—
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.” Joel 2: 28-32.
Other scriptures unmistakably indicate the same gracious outpouring. To this time we have long looked forward, and now as never before there exists a general expectancy of the fulfilment of this word. In every quarter are hands outstretched to God, hearts longing for his blessing.
God will not disappoint his longing church. In his own time and in his own way he will send the power of the Holy Spirit upon his remnant. We believe that now the work for the reception of the Spirit in his fulness has already begun. The people of God as never before are searching their hearts, and seeking to put out of their lives all sin. There is a spirit on the part of many to obtain the victory over every besetment. This heart-searching is the result of the Spirit’s convicting power, and this is one of the first things he does for his church. “When he [the Spirit of truth] is come, he will convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”
We need to clear the King’s highway if we expect him to come in his fulness. We need to clear away the rubbish from the door of our hearts, to cleanse the soul temple from defilement, cast down every idol, and enthrone the Lord Jesus Christ as the supreme object of our affection. We need to remove the stone of stumbling from the pathway of others, and live daily with a conscience void of offense toward God and man. This is the standard of Christian living we are to place before us.
But let us remember this, that great blessings lie close to great dangers. As the Lord will work in power, so Satan will be stirred to work with lying signs and mighty wonders. We shall need in the days before us great spiritual discernment to distinguish between the false and the true. We can not trust to emotion, sentiment, or human judgment. There is one guide given us as a pilot amid the darkness and pitfalls of this world; namely, the Scriptures of truth. The Word of God is the revelation of the blessed Spirit. The speaking of the Spirit to individual hearts will accord with the speaking of the Spirit through the Word. If we find an influence in our lives leading us away from the Word of God, we may be assured that it is not the Spirit of God, but the spirit of the adversary that is seeking to draw us off. Let us fasten our faith and hope firmly to this anchor in the days before us, for Satan will endeavor to sweep even Seventh-day Adventists into fanatical movements. Our only safety is in standing firm upon the rock of our foundation—the Scriptures of eternal truth. All who depart from this anchor will make shipwreck of their faith and experience.
F. M. W.

How Prayer Helped in Far New Guinea

By W. A. S.

It is not always the will of God to lift at once the burden; but he helps us carry it. Not always does he save from the trial; but he keeps us through it. The Lord from heaven reaches down to grasp the feeblest hand lifted up in the darkness to feel after divine support.
Elder J. E. Fulton, president of the Australasian Union Conference, passes on the following incident, which Elder S. W. Carr reported from the wilds of New Guinea. The boys who are spoken of in this report were taken into the school a year or two ago from raw, unthinking heathenism, and as yet are only feeling their way toward the life of faith. Elder Carr writes:—
While we were in Australia, one mule got lost, and although since our return Solomon nearly got her once or twice, yet it was not until three weeks ago we were able to secure her. She was about fifteen miles from Port Moresby, and all the natives were afraid of her, as she would run at them, and of course they would run away. We sent three boys with a tame mule to act as a decoy, and I told them not to think of returning if they did not get her the first day; they did not return. At noon the second day, one boy returned with the decoy, saying they had seen no sign of the wild mule. At about five o'clock, however, Vaore and the other boy arrived with the mule secured with a halter. Vaore was our best boy (he is now back home in his village). He said he found the mule, which came straight for him. He went straight at it, and the mule ran, and the boys after it. He said he ran up-hill and down-hill, through the long grass, scrub, etc., without getting tired. At last he stopped, and prayed that the Lord would help him to secure the mule with the halter; and after another mile or so he had her. His little experience about praying did us as much good as getting the mule back.
More than once in the story of missions, heathen hearts in distress have cried to the Christian's God for help, and found the answer that made known to them the living and the true God who does things on earth.
Thus it was that Paul, of the African Banza Manteke Mission, was led to the Saviour, later to become a veritable apostle throughout a wild region of the Kongo. Overtaken at night in the swamps along a river, with the wild beasts creeping in the jungle and the crocodiles threatening at the river bank, he cried to the Christian's God, against whom he formerly had been fighting. And the Christian's God sent the answer,—a boat that brought deliverance.
Brother Carr reports the following further experience at the same Bisiatabu Mission, New Guinea:—
I might relate another instance, showing how the boys are getting to know that the Lord hears prayer. One of the horses fell into a swamp the other day, and unknown to us, was in all night. Next afternoon she was found, and we made several attempts to pull her out. At last, while we all held on to the rope, I prayed with eyes open that the Lord would give her the strength to struggle out, and within ten seconds she was on solid ground. Such experiences with the boys are not uncommon, and they are taking a practical interest in what is being taught them. Vaore, who got the mule, said he would return to his village, and after he had taught all he could remember of what he had learned about Jesus, he would return and get a fresh stock of knowledge, to be passed on in due time to his fellows. He has only been gone two weeks. Even when he went, he requested that he might go on Monday instead of on Tuesday, so he would be home on Friday, as he did not want to travel on the Sabbath. For these and similar experiences, we feel grateful to our Heavenly Father. They cheer us along the journey.
And we who hear are cheered along the way by these testimonies to the living God. The unbeliever might scoff at the idea of asking God to help in common perplexities such as these; but there is One who can lighten the load along the common ways of life. A student in old time, cutting wood by a river bank, was dismayed as he saw the ax head slip from its handle and sink in the deep waters. “Alas, master! for it was borrowed.” A little thing to the well-to-do, but in those days it was a serious thing to the struggling student; and the God of Israel caused the iron to swim, and the young man put out his hand and took it.
The young man Saul, looking for the lost beasts from his father's drove, and inquiring for counsel from the man of God, was in better case than when as king, self-willed, he tried to carry his burdens alone.
W. A. S.

Thanks Due to God

By C. M. S.

WHEN the work of God is finished in the earth; when the long story of oppression and misery and sorrow is done, and the saints of God are sealed to eternal life—then the angels of God unite in a grand chorus of rejoicing over the completed work, ascribing “blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, . . . unto our God forever and ever.”
Having witnessed through thousands of years the struggle between right and wrong, liberty and oppression, loyalty and disobedience, it could not be otherwise than that thanksgiving should form a part of that mighty symphony of praise over the complete triumph of righteousness.
Anticipating that glorious consummation, it is the Christian’s privilege now to render unstinted thanksgiving to the One who is now accomplishing for him that wonderful work. It is now going forward. God is in Christ “reconciling the world unto himself.” For that we should render him thanks, honor, and praise. We can do that for the accomplishment of that work for the whole race, for the whole realm.
But included in that glorious work is the triumph of the individual, and that from day to day, and then the reward of the individual in the consummated work. That work is not completed without the triumph of the individual man, through Christ. That great reward is to be distributed in severalty to individual men and women. “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Those who take part in that song of thanksgiving over the accomplished work will take part here in the work which makes possible the singing of that song. God’s work will triumph in men; for in men the great transgression came that made redemption’s work necessary. Then in place of disobedience will be loyalty; in place of hatred, love; in place of variance, brotherly kindness; in place of strife, peace; in place of sorrow, joy; in place of discord, harmony; in place of discontent, contentment and fulness of satisfaction forever.
Eternal years will not be long enough to empty the heart of redeemed man of all its thanksgiving to God, or to enable man to tell the wondrous depths of God’s love in the sacrifice he made and the work he wrought.
If we expect to take part in the ascription of praise and thanksgiving to him there, we will not withhold praise and thanksgiving from him here and now for what he is to us, as well as for what he is to be to us. We can thank him that he emptied heaven of its richest Gift to make us happy subjects of his realm; that he dwelt in temptable flesh so he might the more keenly sympathize with us in our temptations. He endured the pangs of hunger, that he might sympathize with the hungry, as well as to conquer where man fell. He suffered poverty, to sympathize with the poor. He became poor voluntarily that we might share in the riches of heaven and the earth made new. Should it not cause praise and thanksgiving to well up in our souls when we realize that he has promised to take us into this wonderful and everlasting partnership? He has done his part to bring it about. Let us thank him that he has, and then go and do ours.
But what of the temporal things? He has promised seed-time and harvest, and they have never failed. Year by year we have planted seed, and he has given rain and sunshine to bring it to the harvest. We sowed one, and God made it thirty; we planted one, and God made it fifty. We labored in sun and rain and cold to provide food for the household; but God alone could make any good come out of all that we did. He crowned our efforts with success, filled our plowed land with waving grain, and our fruit-trees with their bounty. Is there nothing in all this to cause us to render praise and honor and thanksgiving to God?
Thank God that he has set before us the hope of an eternal inheritance in an everlasting kingdom. We were full of the deadly virus of sin; he has promised to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity. We have thrown ourselves open to the surest weapons of the enemy; he has promised to take us under the wings of his protection, and to shield us from everything that could do us harm. And when we have truly thanked him for all his precious gifts, we will then only have begun to realize how much there is to thank him for—how more than worthy he is of all the thanksgiving and honor it is in our power to give. In the midst of this world’s alarms, he is our safety. While terror and dread are spreading over the world, we can see the entrance to the harbor of perpetual peace and safety and consolation. While doubt and dismay are met with on every hand, we have a certainty and an assurance as firm as the everlasting hills, a trust that can not be shaken, a hope sure and steadfast. We know whom we have believed and are persuaded that he is able to keep that which we have committed unto him against that day. Let us thank God and take courage.
C. M. S.

The Empty Boast of the Roman Catholic Church

By William Warren Prescott

ALTHOUGH France, Portugal, and Spain, long regarded as the most loyal Catholic countries, have to a large extent broken away from the domination of the Papacy, and although Rome itself, the city of the popes, has twice elected as mayor Signor Nathan, who is both a Jew and a Freemason, yet in the face of these disquieting circumstances the Roman Catholic hierarchy, with the greatest assurance, professes the utmost confidence in the future of its church. This statement is not based upon the irresponsible utterances of some local priest, but upon declarations published in influential Catholic journals. We will make an extract from one editorial of this kind. In its issue of Dec. 30, 1911, America, the leading Jesuit weekly of this country, makes a forecast of the new year as it relates to the Roman Catholic Church. We quote three or four paragraphs:—
The church alone, though beset on all sides, and supposed by her enemies to be overwhelmed and helpless and almost at an end, is at peace. She stands among the sepulchers of the nations, unterrified and undismayed. In her luminous and beneficent progress through the ages she has passed through more awful catastrophes than those which now surround her, but they have only brought out with greater splendor the divine power with which she is invested, not only of resisting the enemies that seek to destroy her, but of repairing all the material and spiritual havoc of which they are the authors.
When the empire of the Cæsars crumbled to the dust, she built up a mightier Roman empire than any Cæsar ever dreamed of; assailed by the barbarians, she dowered them with civilization and Christianity; terrified for a time by the Turks, she is now contemplating the dismemberment of the realms once lighted by the crescent, and is sending her missionaries into the lands which centuries ago were invaded by her crusaders. Protestantism is disintegrating before her eyes, and multitudes of its greatest representatives are hurrying to the temples which their forefathers had abandoned.
All the old enemies are gone, and she faces new ones to-day, not pagans nor heretics nor Turks, but apostates and atheists, who hate the very name of God, and rail like madmen against the faith they have forsworn. They have seized on the machinery of governments, and by confiscation, robbery, and expatriation are striving with an almost satanic fury to efface from the souls of men every memory of Christianity. But the lesson of the past will be repeated. The church will be called upon to quell the tumult which these very men have provoked among the people and to save from ruin the very governments which were fashioned to compass her destruction.
In appearance she was never so weak, but in reality never so powerful as today. From the solitude of the Vatican, to which her recreant children have consigned her, she rules the hierarchy of every nation, selects her princes and prelates from kingdoms and empires and republics, with absolute unconcern for the statesmen or rulers of the nations, and her least word is listened to and obeyed with reverence and love at the uttermost ends of the earth as never before in the history of the world.
The voice from heaven sounding the final call to the people of God to come out of Babylon, declaring that “her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities,” thus foretells her doom:—
“Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her; for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” Rev. 18:6-8.
The student of prophecy recognizes that the rehabilitation of the Papacy in the last generation is one of the signs indicating the nearness of the coming of Him whose right it is to reign, and foreshadowing the utter overthrow of the kingdom of Antichrist. One necessary condition of the fulfilment of the prophecies relating to these events is that the Papacy shall vaunt itself and proclaim its absolute immunity from any destroying power. This condition is being fulfilled before our eyes. Other specifications of the last-day prophecies are also being fully met, showing that the great consummation is just at hand.
There is no hope of the restoration of modern Babylon; her fate is sealed. When the dogma of infallibility was proclaimed in 1870, and the Roman Church was thus rendered irreformable, the utter destruction of that apostate body, as a whole, was just as certainly decreed as was the destruction of Jerusalem when the Jewish hierarchy refused the offers of divine mercy and finally rejected the Messiah. It only remains in this generation to call as many as possible out of Babylon by the preaching of the true gospel, just as many of the Jews were rescued from the impending extinction of the nation by the acceptance of the gospel in the generation which closed with the destruction of Jerusalem.
The threefold message of Revelation 14:6-12 is the only explanation of the present situation, and furnishes the only avenue of escape from the doom which threatens the whole world.
W. W. P.

Note and Comment

Peace and Safety

While well-meaning and enthusiastic individuals are working for some arrangement by which war throughout the world may be abolished and universal peace reign in its stead, it may be well to consider what is taking place in the United States at the present time in the nature of expenditures for war.
During the eight years preceding the Spanish war the average annual cost of the army and navy was $51,500,000. During the eight years since the Spanish war the average annual cost of the army and navy has been $185,400,000. The average yearly increase has amounted to $134,000,000, making a total increase for the eight years of $1,072,000,000, or 360 per cent. The ordinary income of the United States government for the year 1908 was $604,000,000. Of this amount $423,000,000, or 70 per cent, was used for maintaining the army and navy, paying pensions to wounded or disabled soldiers of previous wars, and preparing for future war, leaving but $181,000,000 for other purposes.
The amount expended for one battle-ship would build a macadamized road of the most improved construction between the cities of Chicago and New York. The Congressional Library at Washington, the finest library building in the world, was built for about one half the cost of a battle-ship, and is maintained for three fourths the cost of keeping a battle-ship afloat.
With the continual assurances of peace advocates that the days of war are soon to come to an end, such figures as these give us strongest reasons for doubting the accuracy of such declarations. Nevertheless the fact that the peace and safety cry is being given now at a time when the nations are spending more for war preparations than at any time in the past, gives the strongest ground for belief in the accuracy of divine prophecy. The weapons of destruction are being perfected and accumulated in all portions of the earth, and the Inspired Word declares that when they shall say “peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall not escape.” The Inspired Word has put the peace and safety cry and sudden destruction side by side. The peace and safety cry is being given, and the facilities for accomplishing that destruction are being swiftly multiplied in the earth.

Babylon and God's Law

By C. M. S.

God, in the last days, warns his people against an institution which he calls Babylon. Literal Babylon was the mother of idolatry. Spiritual Babylon of the last days is a faithful follower of that idolatrous mother, and so God says of her, while seeing through the centuries of her history, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.” But in the overthrow of Babylon, there is the overthrow of everything that goes to make up Babylon—all the institutions, all the influences, all the men and women who have accepted its principles, all the nations that have forgotten God.
God's law condemned idolatry. Babylon, both literal and spiritual, broke that law, and taught men to bow down to wood and stone, to images of gold and silver, to pictures, and to human beings.
God's law established the Sabbatic institution, and commanded its observance. Babylon has taught the world—and is still teaching it—to trample upon that institution and choose another to take its place. God indicated his way in this matter; Babylon chose her own way; and God, in his last warning message to this world, is calling men out of Babylon and back to his appointed way. “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4.
The law of God, then, is the great test to tell who is Babylon and who are of Babylon; for God condemns her because of her attitude toward his law. “Her sins,” he says, “have reached even unto heaven,” and he plainly declares that “sin is the transgression of the law.” As he condemns her for her attitude toward his law, so will he condemn us if we allow ourselves to be deceived into taking that same attitude toward that law. God has only one truth for the world, only one gospel, only one light, only one way, only one law, only one Saviour.
It is possible to be judged as keeping the law of God in spirit, when we, through ignorance, have broken its letter. Many who have witnessed for God with their lives have broken the letter of the fourth commandment; but the sins were of ignorance God passed over. They had never seen the light of that requirement. It is the attitude that God looks upon, the willingness of heart to do what he requires regardless of temporal consequences; but he to whom light has come has not that cloak to cover his failure. He must stand or fall according to the attitude which he has assumed toward God's law. Babylon falls because she opposes that law; but this is what the psalmist says of those who have not followed in her way: “Blessed are they that are perfect in the way, who walk in the law of Jehovah.” Ps. 119:1. It is not a matter of small consequence, then, whether we obey God or obey our own desires and inclinations. Our eternal destiny hangs upon our attitude toward God's law. The fall of spiritual Babylon is but a type of our own fall if we choose to follow in her footsteps.
C. M. S.

Increasing Church Attendance

WHEN the Christian church was yet young, there came in among a certain element a desire for numbers; and that desire was gratified, but at a terrible cost. It brought apostasy and the dark ages, and the Inquisition came as a natural result. We see the same desire manifested to-day on the part of a portion of the church body; and the increase of that tendency is sure to bring with it what it brought in the early days of Christianity.
Some clergymen, more anxious for numbers than conversions, have fitted up dancing-parlors in connection with their churches, or have organized athletic societies and arranged wrestling-matches and boxing-bouts, organizing classes in boxing and wrestling. The following extract from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin of Jan. 12, 1912, illustrates the tendency, and shows a new method of accomplishing the same result:—
A plan to increase the attendance at the Third German Baptist Sunday-school, Ritner and Tenth streets, will be tried Sunday. The plan consists of a miniature pushmobile-race. A course representing Broad Street from Government Avenue to Erie Avenue has been laid around the room, and miniature pushmobiles will be used in the race, the entire arrangement being suspended from the ceiling by wires. Each class will be represented by one pushmobile. The superintendent is the originator of this plan.
There may be a difference between holding a competitive pushmobile-race in a Sunday-school room on Sunday to draw a crowd and holding a competitive horse-race on the race-track on the same day to draw a crowd; but the difference is not sufficient to guarantee to the pushmobile-race any sort of divine commission as a winner of souls or as a promulgator of the gospel. Such things are no more a part of the divine plan for the evangelization of the world than the “strange fire” offered by Nadab and Abihu, was a part of the sanctuary service of old. Lev. 10:1. That God does not visit his wrath upon such substitutes now as he did then, must not be taken as an indication of his approval. Soon he will cleanse his temple; but not this time with a whip of cords or the summary execution of two priests. The lessons he has given are sufficient so that there is no excuse for such exhibitions in edifices dedicated to his worship.

Prophets of Evil

CONSERVATISM, even in the church of God, may reach a point where it will amount to an extreme pessimism discouraging to Christian enthusiasm or progress. Some see the dark side of every picture. Like the ten spies that went up to view the land of promise, they see only the giants. The Lutheran of Dec. 21, 1911, cites the following incident as illustrating this principle:—
In a certain town there lived an old lady who had never seen an electric trolley-car. In time, the enterprising business men of the town formed a company and built an electric street-railroad in the town. Many evil prophecies were spoken. The wits let loose their ridicule and sarcasm. The day for the opening of the electric railroad came. There were speeches, a parade, and band music. The first car was to start from the grand stand. The old lady was there with a mingled look of distress and triumph. She told her neighbors standing about, “It will never run. I know it. Without horses? I tell you it will never run.” The motorman took his place and turned the controller. The car stood still. The old lady flung her arms into the air, and shrieked, “I told you so. I knew it. It won’t run.” After a few slight adjustments the motorman again turned the controller. This time, with a crack and a swish, amid the applause of the rustic multitude, the car shot forward and up the track. The old lady, with open mouth, leaned forward over the track, shielded her eyes with her hand, and looking after the car, said, “It ain’t going to stop, I tell you. It never will stop.” Some never have faith in any projects until others make them go.

The Blight of Strong Drink

FROM a speech by Hon. R. P. Hobson in the House of Representatives, on Feb. 2, 1911, we quote the following paragraph for its striking statistics:—
A scientist having investigated more than 800 cases, announces that of children born to alcoholic parents, one of every five will be hopelessly insane; one out of three will be hysterical or epileptic; more than two thirds will be degenerate. Another scientist located ten large families in which both parents were alcoholic, and in the same localities, with other conditions practically the same, ten large families in which both parents were total abstainers. Of the 57 children of the alcoholic parents, 16 were deformed, 6 were epileptic, 6 were idiotic, 25 were non-viable; only 17 per cent were normal, 83 per cent being abnormal. Of the 61 children of the total-abstaining parents, 10.5 per cent only were abnormal, and these chiefly backward, while 89.5 per cent were absolutely normal. Seventeen per cent were normal in the one case and 89.5 per cent in the other case, a difference of 72.5 per cent. Parents by becoming alcoholic will sacrifice three fourths of their children on the altar of drink.
This is a tremendous toll paid in the vain attempt to appease an unnatural appetite. With the continuous increase in the use of intoxicating drink in the world and the ingenious methods adopted by the liquor interests to enmesh the children in the toils of this destroyer, the prospect for the betterment of the race is not an encouraging one. There is no evil with which the human race is afflicted that brings so many other evils in its train, as does this one.
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