p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 36. (9/8/1898)

“Purely and Distinctly Christian.”

—There is an unconscious irony in a note in The Independent of August 11, on the situation in Crete and Bulgaria. It says of Crete: “The Powers have recognized the Assembly, but the Turks have not, and the result is that it is purely and distinctly Christian. The first meeting was characterized by bitter contests between different deputies, resulting in a scene of great confusion, in which rifles were loaded and pointed and knives were flourished in the courtyard outside the building.” (1) What does The Independent mean by “and the result is,” etc.? How does the recognition or non-recognition of the Powers or of Turkey affect the Christianity of the Cretan Assembly? Does the recognition of the so-called Christian Powers make a thing “purely and distinctly Christian”? And would recognition on the part of the Turks prevent this or make it non-Christian? (2) And is the scene described above “purely and distinctly Christian”? The Book of Christianity says, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” It is a strange kind of Christianity The Independent stands for. There is already too much of that kind in the world. The world would be better without it. Let us have the genuine.

Promotion—What It Means.

Park Benjamin points out in The Independent of August 25 that promotion, or advancement in numbers or grades, of military officers means reduction in numbers of their brother officers. For instance, eight lieutenants were advanced in the aggregate forty-three numbers, but to do this thirty were put down the same aggregate number, from one to three each. He gives as an example that “for gallantry at the battle of Manila an officer was promoted seven numbers, and the incidental effect was the reduction of seven other officers, including the captain of the New York, one number. It was, therefore, the captain’s misfortune that he should, at that particular time, have been on the other side of the world. But subsequently the captain himself was advanced five numbers, and that put him ahead of the Manila man again, who was thereby deprived of one-seventh of his reward, because the captain at the antipodes in his turn had done something commendable.” Not so does the Lord play fast and loose with His servants. “They also serve who only stand and wait.”

Christianity and Cheerful Giving

“The Trestle Board,” a Masonic paper, in speaking of the inequalities of the lodge system of finance, remarks: “We are opposed to paying for charity more than we can without injury to ourself and those dependent upon us, and the principle of exacting more is an innovation. Further than this every man should be the best judge of his own ability. The world is in need of a fraternity to which one can contribute what he thinks he is able, and not what his neighbor says he must contribute, or be suspended from membership.” Well, God has met the need of the world in Jesus Christ and Christianity. “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.” If men only knew Christianity, they would never seek to build up so many counterfeits. If they would drink of the ever-living Fountain, they would no more hew themselves out “cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”

It Is Hardly Proof.

To break the force of the overwhelming evidence concerning the moral condition of the Philippines under Spanish rule and Catholic instruction, The Catholic Mirror quotes from an article by Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt, a German, in a German Catholic missionary paper. The Mirror heads this article, “In the Philippines. The Great Work of Civilization Accomplished by Catholic Missionaries;” but the report absolutely tells us nothing save what is reported by the priests, who, according to others, are responsible for much of the suffering. Unfortunately, the testimony is most likely to be unsafe; it is that of the accused in favor of himself, unsupported by existing conditions. There may be thousands of native Catholics. What is their real spiritual and moral condition? That is the question, not, What is their profession?