JESUS CHRIST came to give liberty—"to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." He is the only One who can make men truly free.
"Liberty," as men use it, is a relative term. It is generally used of freedom from outward restraint. Its highest type politically has been presented to the world in the United States of America.
But it is liberty only in part that any government can give. Civil governments may secure and preserve to their citizens equal rights, privileges, and immunities so far as the physical man is concerned. This is good; and blessed is the nation where these equal rights are conserved and man is protected in these rights. This is all that civil government can do. It may secure these human rights to its citizens, yet at the same time they may be slaves of the worst tyrant earth ever knew.
That tyrant is Satan. That slavery is the bondage of sin. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Rom. 6:16. This bondage includes the whole human race; for "whosoever committeth sin is the servant [slave] of sin," and "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." John 8:34; Rom. 3:23. And there is no difference save in degree. The form of service may vary, but the tyrant and the bondage are the same.
One of the worst things in the bondage of sin is that the slave can not free himself. He is "without strength;" "none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him." Ps. 49:7. Listen to a free-born son of earth, yet in the bondage of sin: "That which I do, I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. . . . For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do." And further on he tells us that he is in "captivity to the law of sin which is in my members;" and he cries in his anguish: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. 7:15-24. And this has been and is the experience of earth's countless millions.
Some one who reads these lines may say, "I do not know such slavery; I do not feel such bondage. I am in the world and happy." This may be transiently true. Some persons die from poison at ease and quiet. That which kills benumbs sensibility. Sin is a deadly poison. Men have lived in prison so long for crime that when released they have begged to be taken back. So long had they been in bondage they could not appreciate liberty. So long had they looked upon prison walls that they could not appreciate God's mountains and trees and streams and flowers and sunshine. So men who love sin are blinded by sin till its ugliness and evil seem beauty. This is the worst phase of sin's slavery—its deceitfulness. And all who know not Jesus Christ are in sin.
Deny it if we will, struggle against it as we may, we meet the end of sin's slavery in the silent tomb, with no power in mortal man to unlock its icy portals.
But there come times to every soul in sin's bondage when he longs for freedom, longs that the bonds of evil habits of thought and action shall be broken. He longs to be patient instead of impatient, to be kind instead of cross, to be reverent instead of profane, to be generous instead of covetous, to be sober instead of drunken, to be pure instead of corrupt, to make a happy home instead of a hell, to love instead of hate, to have peace and rest instead of strife and tossing to and fro. All the evil is the fruit of sin. All the heart longings for the better life are from God. It is God pleading with you for your soul. It is His wooing to win you from strife to rest, from sin to righteousness, from death to life.
Who can bestow all this? Who can meet the unutterable heart longings?—Jesus Christ, the Saviour of men, the mighty Redeemer and Friend of the sinner. Said he from whom we have before quoted as one in bondage, in answer to the heart-rending question, "Who shall deliver me?" "I thank God thru Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 7:25. Yes, Christ, the mighty Son of God, is the deliverer from sin and death. He saves "to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him." Heb. 7:25. That is His mission. He came to deliver, "to heal the broken-hearted," "to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation."
Jesus Christ says now if you desire to be saved. But He will not force your freedom. Without question the American government freed slaves who did not desire to be released, but our Deliverer sets free those who earnestly desire the freedom He offers, and who will seek it in simple faith. He has purchased the freedom of all, bought it with His life, and offers it with loving heart in nail-pierced hand to every soul, without money and without price on the sinner's part, with infinite price on His part. Will you accept it, sinner, or will you not accept the great, glad, boundless freedom of God in Christ Jesus? He will forgive you. "He delighteth in mercy." "He will subdue our iniquities." Let Him do all this for you.
Then, O the blessedness of the freedom! Whom the Son makes free "shall be free indeed." Men may defame you, revile you, arrest you, shut you up in prison, put you in stocks or chain-gang, behead you, or burn you at the stake; but they can not destroy your liberty in Christ. In the prison walls you have more liberty than your persecutors. They can suspend your physical liberty for a little while at the most; but Christ is Lord of life and Conqueror of death. The grave could not hold Him. It can not hold one soul upon whom is His righteousness when He calls; and He will call every soul who is His to a glorious immortality in an eternal land forevermore. "Brethren, ye are called unto liberty."
The Golden Rule.
KNOWN in the negative in ancient world religions, but in the active, positive, in the religion of the Bible is that wonderful summary of conduct toward our fellows, thus enunciated by Christ:
“All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them; for this is the law and the prophets.” Matt. 7:12.
This Golden Rule is a conclusion from what our Lord has said of God’s willingness to give and our entreaty of Him for blessing, which He is more willing to give than are earthly parents to give unto their children. But asking good things of God and expecting them, demands on our part a kindred disposition toward others. God sends many of His blessings thru others. He moves upon other hearts to bless. But if we would receive, we must be ready to give. “Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them.”
“Whatsoever ye would that men”—it matters not the kind of “men”—the rule is for us toward them, not for them toward us. They may be German or French or Irish or English or Chinese or Hottentot. They are men. How would you like to have these men treat you?—Do ye even so to them. It matters not what the religion of these men may be, whether pagan or infidel, Roman Catholic or Protestant, Mohammedan or Jew. You may be a Christian. How would you like to have them regard you? Do you think it would be right for them to persecute you? that you should be compelled to do as they did, or to outwardly conform to their worship? Would you believe it right for them to compel you, or seek to compel you, to uncover before their idol shrine, or bow the head as the idol was borne in solemn procession along the street?
All these questions you will answer with an emphatic negative. It is not right to persecute a Christian, to compel him to worship false gods, or take part in ceremonies contrary to his conscience. You believe that and hold it as a decided, self-evident conviction.
But if that be true,—and none ought to deny it,—the Christian ought not to seek by force of any kind save love to compel those who oppose him. He has no right to compel the Chinese to cease his worship of Joss, or to prohibit the Mohammedan from praying toward Mecca, or the Hindu from worshiping the Ganges.
You may be a Hebrew and a keeper of the seventh day. You have no right to seek to compel your neighbors to observe that day, whether he observe another day or not. And if he be a first day observer he has no right, according to the Golden Rule, to interfere with your observance of days.9
The Golden Rule puts us in the other man's place and demands that we should treat him as tho he were really and truly ourselves. If this rule had been followed by Christians, we should never have had a Dark Ages, never would have heard of the work of "Bloody Mary" or the horrible times of "Good Queen Bess;" never would there have been recorded the terrors of the inquisition, nor the burning of Servetus, nor the banishment of Roger Williams, nor the hanging of "witches." No Christian, in the light of the Golden Rule, could or would seek to fetter or restrict the religious rights of infidel, Catholic, Jew, or Protestant. All have equal rights before God. All should be respected in their rights. Live the Golden Rule.
Religion and Civil Power
God is able and will abundantly care for all His institutions without any aid from civil power. All true religion asks, or has any right to ask, from civil power, is non-interference or non-intervention, as long as the equal rights of all are not contravened.
What Are They For?
By Max Hill
G LADSTONE, England's "Grand Old Man," was all thru his long and varied life of strenuous activity a devoted Christian. His piety was a part of his character, it was his character; not a cloak to be thrown about him, but a complete garment of salvation. His humble, Christ-like life was once the topic of conversation, when one man remarked, "After all, what are Christians in the world for?"
Truly enough, what are they here for? Is it not their mission to show forth the real character of the Lamb of God in true humility, the Son of Man in brotherly love, the Friend of sinners in forgiving the erring, the Light of the world in leading men to the Source of light, the Saviour of men in perfecting characters that meet the standard of God? A high standard is demanded. Would less be expected of Perfection?
The Christian draws from a Source of strength that is more than human. This alone insures fulness, for the love of God abounds, overflows, and with the psalmist the Christian exclaims, "My cup runneth over." It is not an imaginary filling, it is not a shadow of a standard; too many have tested it in every possible environment; too many have dwelt in the secret place of the Most High, in the shadow of the Almighty, to be deceived. "O taste and see that Jehovah is good; blessed is the man that taketh refuge in Him."
MAX HILL.
The Game for Money.
By T.
SINCE the great earthquake on the Pacific Coast last year there has been much difficulty experienced in getting freight shipments delivered. At first the people took the situation in a matter-of-fact sort of way, thinking that as soon as "things settle down to their normal state" there will be no further difficulty. But it has been a year and almost three months since the earthquake and fire in San Francisco, and the difficulties in securing prompt transportation are practically as great now as they were a year ago.
At first there was a great effort that seemed patriotic and unselfish to relieve the distress and to restore normal conditions. But it soon developed that men would pay extra prices in order to get things in a hurry, and then instead of an effort to relieve the abnormal conditions there comes a general scramble thru the artifices of bribes and grafting to get hold of all the money that could be extorted and keep out of jail, and some have not been successful in evading the prison. This latter fact is the only hopeful omen in the situation.
The grafting in freight shipments was induced by some of the wealthy shippers keeping agents at certain transfer points to pay the freight men for putting their cars ahead. The reports say that $50.00 a car was an ordinary price of getting them moved out of the congested yards promptly. And, with the abnormal prices that were reigning on the Coast, the big shipper could afford to pay this extra fee or graft in order to have his goods put on the preferred list and passed on.
As this grafting is found out and exposed the railroad officials claim that they have no knowledge of it, and that they will do all they can to stop it. But no sooner is this matter taken up than another complaint is made by inference, if not openly, that the railroads themselves are delaying freights in order to make it necessary for people to ship by express. The railroads are the principal stockholders in the express companies, and since they can equip special express trains about as easily as they can equip freight trains, and since the express charges are nearly five times as great as the freight rate there is an immense extra profit.
The Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco has just sent an appeal to the President at Washington to relieve the Pacific Coast from this congested freight condition by increasing the facilities of the Panama Railway, and extending the service of merchant ships along the coast of the Atlantic and the Pacific. And this appeal is couched in such language as to make it almost necessary to infer that the leading business men of that city are of the opinion that the railroads are conniving in the freight hold-ups.
The foregoing statements are merely facts of current history. Nobody denies them. These facts show that the men of this time have the machinery of the country in such shape that they can extort money from their fellow men, and that they are not backward about doing it. The men who are engaged in this extortion are not considering their fellow men; they are thinking only of how they can increase their own gains. The inconveniences, the losses, and even the financial ruin of some of their fellows is not the thing that they are taking into account.
What they are studying is the question of getting money, regardless of how much the rights of another are invaded or trampled upon.
The men who are doing these things tell us that the world is growing better; they tell us that this is the time of great civilization and enlightenment, and consequently the great manifestation of the "brotherhood of man." But the one who is viewing conditions as they exist can not fail to see that the facts belie the assumptions of such highly refined civilization and morality.
One passage of inspiration makes the meaning of these conditions plain. It reads: "Know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof; from these also turn away." 2 Tim. 3: 1-5. These scripture statements show that self-love and love of money are among the things that make the last days perilous. The self-love and the love of money shown in this time is causing many of the strongest and wisest men to anxiously ask what will be the outcome of it all. For the self-love and the money-love of this generation have built up a system of robbery that can keep within the law and yet extort and wring money out of the people in ways that ought to make the ordinary highwayman, the bank robber, or the train wrecking bandits to consider themselves as not yet beyond the kindergarten degrees of the school of criminality.
There is a turbulent, unsettled condition in the world to-day, and if you will take the time to step aside from the maddening whirl to analyze the situation you will readily see that the disposition to get money in large sums, regardless of how it is obtained, is at the basis of much of our social disease. God saw this thousands of years ago, and told us what it would mean. He has told us that it would mean peril, and He has also said it would mean the "last days." The only hope before the world now is that the "last days" are truly here, and that soon the God of heaven will strike down this powerful mass of evil with His omnipotent power of destruction.
Men may hold theories in regard to the situation, but the prophetic truths of inspiration are the one thing that casts a brilliant light above the mass of gloom. Those who will take the pains to look up may see clearly.
T.
Great Viceroy of Manchuria.
By Christian Advocate
Now that the Japanese and Russian soldiers are gone, an imperial edict is promulgated giving the three provinces of which Manchuria is composed a new form of government. It is not our fault if any of our readers do not know that the government of China is largely that of Manchus instead of genuine Chinese, and that many of the internal troubles of China arise from this fact. At the head of this government for Manchuria is Yuan Shih-kai. It is he who is reorganizing the native military forces of North China. His present post is viceroy of Chihli. This is taken to be a sign that the empress dowager and her advisers intend to be ready should encroachments from the north or from the south be attempted after 1915. At that time the Anglo-Japanese alliance is expected to expire.11Yuan Shih-kai is not a Manchu, but a native Chinese. He has displayed amazing ability and self-control. When Japan and China went to war over the ascendency in the Korean Peninsula, this man was the Chinese representative at the Korean capital. After the struggle was over he went back to China, determined to promote the adoption of Japanese war methods. His next post was governor in Shantung, before he had his present viceroyalty. He was a member of the Reform Party in Peking before the Boxer uprising. Ostensibly he went over to the Reactionaries and kept the peace with the empress dowager. When the Peking legations were besieged he remained quietly in Shantung. He kept himself out of the troubles when Russia was annexing Manchuria, and afterward when Japan was turning her out.
He is in the prime of life and controls seventy thousand men armed and drilled in modern fashion, and is continually increasing the number.
The authority for these facts says that in all the years of the empire there has usually been one leading man of his type in China, but never a man “who has controlled such a force as seven divisions of good troops without curious results.” It is said that this man deserves to be better spoken of to-day than any other living Chinaman. Everybody believes that he loves his country, and eight or nine years hence he will see to it that the Chinese army will have to be reckoned with. He proposes by that time to have a trustworthy standing army of half a million, besides twice that number of reserves, trained soldiers.
He is trying to introduce economy and honesty into the government finances. One of his coadjutors has been made president of the Board of Revenue and recently Imperial High Commissioner of Customs. Another of his proteges is reorganizing the navy, which was ruined by the Japanese in 1894 and 1895. He is Captain Tyler, an Englishman of the Royal Navy. He fills now a place in China which those who know declare to be comparable to that which Marquis Ito occupied in the Japan of twenty years ago.—Christian Advocate.
Pope and Priest.
IT is reported on good authority that 3,000 priests in France have petitioned the pope to have liberty to marry. And why not?
The scandals, during the past twenty years, in France, largely for want of the influences of family life, have been frequent, flagrant, and alarming. These things have largely contributed to the revolt from Rome amongst the French people.
Rome boasts that she never changes, and that she is founded upon St. Peter, the first pope of Rome. But Peter had a wife, and a "wife's mother" whom the Lord "healed of a fever." If Peter was the FOUNDER of "the holy Roman Catholic Church," and he had a wife, why may not his successors "lead about a sister, a wife?" Does not the FACT of the priests being unmarried show that they have DEPARTED from the paths of their founder? And further still, it is a well-known fact that for many centuries after the death of Peter, priests and bishops did marry and have homes; why should "the holy Mother Church" not return to the practise of her early history? Why has "the Church which is always the same," made such a radical change in her faith and practise? As Peter is the ONLY ONE of the apostles of whose marriage we can be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN, is it not strange and comical that these "successors of St. Peter" should condemn HIS manner of life by THEIR OWN CONDUCT?
Has not God placed marriage at the very fountain of His three great agencies on earth—the home, the church, and the State? Why should that body which claims for itself to be "the only true Catholic Apostolic Church," seek to discredit and to dishonor that relation which shows Christ in His relation to the church, and God in His Fatherhood to His people? To use the language of Paul, "doth not even nature itself teach you," that the divine order of things is "that the bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife?" Why not let God have His own way?
It has always been a mystery to us that this "holy Mother Church" should be so UNHOLY as to condone all sorts of flagrant breaches of the LAW OF GOD, and yet be so severe on the man who breaks the LAW OF THE CHURCH. It is no secret that priests may break the seventh commandment, and by confession, penance, temporary retirement, and a transfer to a distant diocese go on in the exercise of the functions of their office; but let him make a saintly woman an honorable wife, as did Peter, and he would be unfrocked and disgraced, for he has broken "the law of the Church."
It is the old story. God counts for little in the minds of proud and unregenerate men, while their own institutions and laws, even when made in the teeth of God and nature, must be sustained at all hazards. The priests of France are not alone in their rebellion against this "law of the Church." It is only a few months ago when a priest said to us: "O, brother, I envy you Protestant ministers; you have your own wives and homes to protect and help you, but we—" and then the conversation was punctured by a grip of the hand, a tear in the eye, and these words, "Say a little prayer sometimes, for me, brother." It is the truth that makes free, and all others are slaves.—Watchword and Truth.
Railway Defense of Michigan Sunday Law
The Michigan law against “working on the sabbath,” has been invoked as a defense by the Grand Trunk Railway in a suit for $10,000 damages brought on behalf of Miss Elsie Janis, the actress. The plaintiff alleges that in 1904 she purchased a ticket at Toronto for Grand Rapids, Mich., and that on reaching Vicksburg, Mich., on March 6, she was informed that Sunday trains from that point to Grand Rapids had been discontinued, and she was unable to proceed to her destination. In consequence, she was prevented from filling her contract to give a public entertainment in Grand Rapids on the evening of March 6, 1904. In its answer filed in the United States circuit court at Toledo, Ohio, on March 16, the Grand Trunk Railway “contends that if Miss Janis had a contract to entertain in a theater March 6, 1904, the instrument was void, because the Michigan State laws prohibit working on the sabbath.” And of course the railroads are very careful to observe the “sabbath” and the laws! The sort of use to which the Grand Trunk Railway seeks to put the Michigan law against “working on the sabbath” in this instance is one for which such laws are frequently employed, and this much can be said for it, that the Michigan law and all other laws against “working on the sabbath” are not capable of any better use.
Slave Trade in the Canal Zone
That there is a regular slave trade in young American girls in Colon and Panama and along the Canal Zone is stated by Rev. Williams P. E. Ferguson, editor of a prohibition organ, the Defender. He gives specific cases and conclusive proof of the awful social conditions, having himself seen many very young American girls there who had been stolen from their homes in America. One saloon and den of vice in Colon is conducted within fifteen feet of the post-office, in a building owned by an employee of the United States. Efforts are being made to bring the matter before the President and Congress.
Church and Stateism in the Navy Department.
COMPLAINT having been made to the Navy Department at Washington by Chaplain Charles M. Charlton of the new battle-ship Georgia that the commander of that vessel, Capt. Richard G. Davenport, had “repeatedly refused to allow him to hold religious services aboard the ship in conformity with the navy regulation providing that there shall be religious services every Sunday unless unusual circumstances prevent,” the department called on Captain Davenport for an “explanation as to why he had refused to permit services,” and following his explanation that in one instance the ship was coaling and at other times there were other causes which interfered to prevent services, the department “has decided that his reasons were not sufficient, and has sent him a sharp letter upon the subject, telling him that hereafter he must comply with the Navy regulations in this respect.” This matter became public April 7, and at its regular weekly meeting on that date the Washington Secular League by the unanimous adoption of the several resolutions offered by Dr. W. A. Croffut, and which resolutions were the next day published in full in Washington newspapers, administered a very proper rebuke to the disregard of the principle of separation of Church and State which this case strikingly illustrates and brings to public notice, by demanding that future services be held only by permission of the commander, and that the salary of the chaplain be paid out of the treasury of the religious body to which he belongs. And this is very proper. What right has the government to appoint chaplains?
What Congregationalists Say of the Scriptures.
(From Advance Almanac of 1894, and Creed of Congregationalism.)
“V. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the record of God’s revelation of Himself in the work of redemption; that they were written by men under the special guidance of the Holy Spirit; that they are able to make wise unto salvation; and that they constitute the authoritative standard by which religious teaching and human conduct are to be regulated and judged.”—P. 56, Creed of 1883.
“You do truly repent of your sins; you heartily receive Jesus Christ as your crucified Saviour and risen Lord; you consecrate yourselves unto God, and your life to His service; you accept His word as your law, and His Spirit as your Comforter and Guide; and, trusting in His grace to confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, you promise to do God’s holy will, and to walk with His church in the truth and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.”—P. 58, Confession of Faith.
The Teaching of the Baptists Concerning the Bible.
“We believe the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired, and is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction; that it has God for its Author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter; that it reveals the principles by which God will judge us, and therefore is, and shall remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried.”—Baptist Convention of New Hampshire.
A Comprehensive Reply
A Comprehensive Reply.—A law-abiding citizen sent to the attorney-general in Michigan the following query: “Is there any law in Michigan against fishing on the Sabbath day?” The attorney-general referred the question to Mr. Chapman, the game-and-fish warden. The warden thus replied: “There is no express Michigan statute. The only prohibition against any kind of Sabbath-breaking is in Exodus 20, which is unrepealed.” So declares the Detroit Journal of April 29, 1907. Exodus 20 contains the Ten Commandments. The fourth commandment is the expression of the Sabbath law. There is not one single State in the United States that has a law to enforce that. All the so-called sabbath laws pertain entirely to another day, that is, Sunday, the first day of the week. Mr. Chapman’s statement ought to take hold upon every loyal heart, “The only prohibition against any kind of Sabbath-breaking is in Exodus 20, which is unrepealed.”
Owing to carelessness of a door-keeper, who left a door open so gas could accumulate in the workings of a coal mine at Priceburg, Pa., two violent explosions took place June 18. At least eight were killed.
Despatches from Valparaiso dated June 16, state that recent earthquakes affecting the territory extending from Valparaiso to the Magellan Straits resulted in the death of thirty-four people and considerable loss of property in Valdivia, a Chilean city of twenty-three thousand inhabitants.
Missouri will make a practical test of the two-cent passenger rate on the railways of the State. A three-months’ trial will be given, and if at the end of that time it is found to be unremunerative, action for its discontinuance will be brought into the courts by the railroads.
The Cotton Crop.—The Atlanta Constitution of June 19, states that the cotton crop of the State of Louisiana and the southern half of Mississippi is forty days late. Unusually late rains, boll-weevil, worms, lice, and troublesome grass, together with a scarcity of laborers, will reduce the crop seventy per cent. in some places.
Czar Nicholas issued an imperial ukase, June 16, which dissolved the douma, the Russian Lower Parliament, and ordered that an election for new members to another douma be held November 14. It is hoped by the czar and his advisers that better electoral laws may be framed, tho the action is criticized by many, including delegates at the Hague Peace Conference. A number of bombs have been thrown and many persons have been assassinated.
I. R. Hicks, astronomer and weather prophet of St. Louis, has announced what is said to be the largest sun-spot discovered in many years. It is stated that the sun appears to be in a state of terrific eruption, the lines showing a large area which seems to be under a tornado-like whirl. The big spot is heart-shaped. Mr. Hicks declares that thruout the storm-area of the United States the public may look for terrific electric storms, accompanied by high winds, which are due at their maximum at this writing.
We once knew a colored man who, offended at his neighbor A, told neighbor B that He would “thrash” neighbor A the next time he met him. Neighbor B in a spirit of fun told neighbor A. The next time that A and the colored man met, A said to him, “Well, Jim, I heard that you were going to ‘thrash’ me. Now is a good time.” With great heat the colored man replied, “It is a wicked lie. I never said so. B told you that, didn’t he?” The San Francisco pleas of innocence recall the incident. Such plea of innocence is to the ordinary mind pretty close to an unmeant confession of guilt.
