Earlier text: CORNELIUSA SYSTEM OF EDUCATION FOR ISRAEL.
By E. A. SUTHERLAND.
ENSLAVED and in deeper bondage than the negroes of the South ever were! Over two hundred years of servitude in ignorance and oppression! This was the race which the God of heaven risked His name upon, and whom He promised to redeem. What could give more convincing proof of the value of a system than its power to take men from such a condition and elevate them to a plane where Jehovah Himself was willing to make them an eternal people and their country an everlasting inheritance? We boast much of the power of the present school system to so educate the children of the land as to make them loyal citizens, but it dwindles into insignificance when compared with the attempt made to educate the whole nation of Jews. We are apt to carry with us a species of rare prejudice, and historians usually say that the Jewish religion and education as well were narrow and bigoted, and could never have been adapted to the needs of a nation like our own; that the education was exclusive instead of aggressive in its tendencies. Yet these same people are obliged to acknowledge that this despised and buffeted race has had more influence on the world, has come in contact with more nations, has laid the foundation for more governments, than any other people in existence. With pride, we point to the Roman law as the backbone of all legal proceedings, but it is on the principles of the moral law delivered to Israel that we, in reality, rest our statutes and judgments, if they lay claim to justice. As to religion, none can deny that all modern civilization and true culture date from the time of Christ, and men who in one breath deny the Son of God, are in the next obliged to acknowledge Him as the Author of law and order. To Israel, then, it must be acknowledged, was delivered the finest system of education which the world has yet seen. It behooves man to consider its strength, and while still copying, in part at least, the customs and rites of the nation which was enslaved, to follow that delivered race through a forty years' experience in which they were taught the grand lessons of faith and obedience. So prone are we to consider our methods of instruction the best, that it is scarcely safe for one to suggest to the popular educator of to-day that there is a higher form of instruction than the inductive system of imparting knowledge. Around this one idea the intellectually progressive have, within the last few years especially, woven such a net of argument and have groped after light with such tenacity, bringing to their aid such a fund of information, and indeed meeting with what seemed such unparalleled success, that, I say, it seems almost like stemming the Niagara to suggest that there is a system of instruction having divine origin which, in practise, contradicts the theory of induction. I refer to the education which makes faith in the Word the basis of all intellectual growth; faith, simple faith, in the plain, positive statements of God. This is illustrated in the case of Israel, and it is to them that we turn. One almost hears the clamor of voices which declare that if inductive reasoning were ever used, it was during the forty years of desert wanderings. But let us consider with less haste. Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians. Forty years of age, strong, commanding, wealthy, proud, heir to the Egyptian throne, why hesitate if God had chosen him as the deliverer of his race? It is true he was an educated Egyptian, but an uneducated man of God; for the wisdom of this world appears as foolishness in the eyes of Jehovah. Forty years more; forty years of close communion with nature and nature's God; forty years a homeless man—his first son, Gershom by name, meant "a stranger here"—four decades passed over his head as he watched the sheep of Jethro in the Midian desert. But those forty years made of him a man who would hear and heed the Voice from heaven. It was then he was counted worthy to take the lead of his people. But because Israel's commander had learned the lesson did not signify that the people themselves could grasp by faith the mighty truths that would make them a nation before whom all others would tremble. Another forty years was needed,—forty years with a Cloud to lead by day and a Pillar of fire by night. During all that time the last waking thought was whether the fiery pillar rested. One motion of that light at midnight was enough to arouse the whole camp and set it in motion. An object lesson most striking indeed, but given, not as an ultimatum, but as the means for reaching that higher form of education by faith. Are we not now in that same stage of development? Is not all this groping unnecessary if we but believe? How can we? Turn from the Egyptian servitude to idols, and serve the living God. It has been thus always. It is for this reason that a history of education is the history of the world. Another forty years of manna daily given, daily gathered; forty years the cool waters flowed from the smitten rock; they drank and were filled; but one day without it was enough to bring rebellion on the part of thousands. Again I say that it was a most solemn attempt to lead the minds of men from servitude, and subjection to mere sight and form, to that higher sphere where education would be taken as the gift of God. Compare the advancement made by Israel during the journey from Succoth to Kadesh-barnea, with the subjection of thought to theological tyranny which was being exercised during the same period in Egypt. Education from books forms but a small part of the heart culture toward which Israel's leader was directing them. When the senses, so long bound by sin, can be once unloosed, the eye will find volumes of knowledge in every leaf and blade and stone. The ear once deaf will be attuned to sounds before unknown, and myriad forms of life will be heard repeating the mysteries of creation. The means by which this can be attained, the tuner, as it were, of the human organ, is the Spirit of God, for the reception of which all training was fitting the Jews. In the days of Samuel the devout young men were gathered together for instruction by the prophet, and so powerful was this divine Presence that strangers approaching the school caught the Spirit and prophesied also. Later on, Elijah stood as visible head of this school, and one is given a glimpse of the real development wrought by the system of education, when he reads that the master was received into heaven without seeing death, and his most devout pupil had such experiences as those related in the first few chapters of the second book of Kings. What an education for young people! So unaccustomed are men in general to thus estimate the value of an education that in the history of the subject this chapter is usually passed by. Yet no candid mind can deny that around such periods circles the real, true history of the world. You look to an Alexander, a Caesar, a Napoleon! Rather turn to those of whom the God of heaven gave such record: "What shall I more say? for time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets; who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, . . . out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." That there must have been something in this education which appealed even to the worldly wise is evidenced by the experience of Daniel in the court of Babylon. Although the Israelites failed to live up to the very principles of education here outlined, and as a result became captives in an eastern nation whose customs, in many respects, resembled Egypt, yet a few of the youth from Jerusalem, who had received their early training in the schools of the prophets, were recognized by the highest authorities in Babylon as possessing ten times the wisdom of their own wise men. Strange, indeed, that a Jew should be placed at the head of an idolatrous government, but it is but another demonstration which secular history is in duty bound to recognize, that the educational system which bears divine credentials, when put to the test, must be acknowledged, even by the worldly wise, as far superior to their own. It is to this system that the world would do well to return to-day. It is to this system that, before the final close of history, a people will return. It may be possible to find a few on earth who are even at this day turning their faces in this direction, and as they see the line of light that appeals to the eye of faith, are pushing toward that goal. Fear the Lord, Ye His Saints
"O FEAR the Lord, ye His saints; for there is no want to them that fear Him." ELIHU BURRITT, speaking of the power of kindness, says: "There is no power of love so hard to get and keep as a kind voice. A kind hand is deaf and dumb. It may be rough in flesh and blood, yet do the work of a soft heart, and do it with a soft touch. But there is no one thing love so much needs as a sweet voice, to tell what it means and feels; and it is hard to get and keep in the right tone. One must start in youth, and be on the watch night and day, at work and play, to get and keep a voice that shall speak at all times the thoughts of a kind heart. It is often in youth that one gets a voice or tone that is sharp, and it sticks to him through life, and stirs up ill-will and grief, and falls like a drop of gall upon the sweet joys of home. Watch it day by day as a pearl of great price, for it will be worth more to you in days to come than the best pearl hid in the sea. A kind voice is to the heart what light is to the eye. It is a light that sings as well as shines." LET us remember that the word church in the New Testament comes from the Greek word, ekklēsia, from the verb ekkaleō, defined by Liddell and Scott's Standard Greek Lexicon, "call out or forth, to summon forth;" ekklēsia is defined to mean, "An assembly of the citizens regularly summoned, the legislative assembly," opposed to a sullogos, a mere crowd or concourse, which might be "legal or riotous;" and therefore the church of the living God is composed of the citizens of heaven, regularly summoned or called. Jesus Christ is the head of this church; He is the "Called of God" and the "Sent of God" to call forth others. Out of what is the church called? It is called out of the world, out of sin, out of darkness and wo and misery and death. "I have chosen you out of the world." John 15:19. "Who hath called you out of darkness." 1 Peter 2:9. "Wherefore come out from among them [the unbelieving, the unrighteous, the children of darkness, the idolaters], and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and I will receive you." 2 Cor. 6:17. "Come out of her [Babylon], My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Rev. 18:4. This does not mean that the called of God shall not mingle with the unbelieving, with the idolater, with the worldlings; it is his duty, his privilege to remain in this world for a season, among the people of the world; but he is not to be of the world. He is not to be actuated by its spirit, its aims, or objects, or purposes. This is shown by the means which God uses to call him out of the world, and the work and station to which He calls him. By what are we called out? It is not by the voice of men or councils of men. Men have called during the whole sad history of mankind; thousands, millions, have heeded their incoherent calls, and have been led to darkness, confusion, blindness, and ruin. It is God's voice in Christ which summons His assembly. It is the good Shepherd which calls His sheep by name, and leadeth them out. He speaks in different ways but pre-eminently through His Word, the test of all other voices professing to be His. This voice which calls, this message which invites, is the Gospel of God; for says the apostle to the church: "He called you by one Gospel" (2 Thess. 2:14); and "called me by His grace" (Gal. 1:15), "the Gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24); God calls to "repent and believe the Gospel" (Mark 1:15); and His Gospel ever testifies, "Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20, 21). To what are we called? Not unto a wilderness of desolation; not to take a certain definite name, calling ourselves the elect and all others reprobate; not to an old and superstitious creed; not to a prescribed ritual and ornate service; not to a certain mountain or temple of earth; not to a certain line of priests or succession of priests according to the flesh; not to one or all these does the blessed Gospel call us. It calls us—all (for God is no respecter of persons; this Gospel is to every one)—to better things. It calls us out of sin "to be saints." Rom. 1:7. It calls out of the fellowship of the world, "unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." 1 Cor. 1:9. "God hath called us to peace," from the strife and unrest of sin. 1 Cor. 7:15. From bondage He has "called unto liberty." Gal. 5:14. He has "not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." 1 Thess. 4:7. He has "called us with an holy calling." 2 Tim. 1:9. He has "called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:9. He has called us from the infamy of sin "unto His eternal glory." Chapter 5:10. He has "called you unto His kingdom and glory." 1 Thess. 2:12. Thus being separated from sin, and by His grace translating us "into the kingdom of His dear Son" (Col. 1:13), He calls us "sons and daughters" (2 Cor. 6:18), "sons of God" (1 John 3:2); "and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17); "fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God" (Eph. 2:19); whose "citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto Himself" (Phil. 3:20, 21). He calls us to the keeping of the "commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12. And this is the church of God, the called-out ones by His Gospel unto Himself, separate from the world, unto Himself, separate from sin unto holiness. Those who heed that call, the "regularly-summoned" ones according to God's Word, in each age form the church for that age, whatever may be said by any ecclesiastical body to the contrary. "HE TAUGHT THEM AS ONE HAVING AUTHORITY."
By T.
AT the conclusion of that wonderful sermon that Christ gave on the mount, the record says of it: "When Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine; for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." Matt. 7:28, 29. The teaching of the scribes was speculative. It lacked point. It lacked definiteness. It lacked the power of a personal conviction on the part of the teachers; the importance of certain forms, and traditions, and meaningless ceremonies was that which occupied their attention. The vital and vitalizing power of the mighty truth of God had never been allowed to enter their bigoted and prejudiced minds to fill them with life and power. They dwelt upon the use of certain forms of dress, or clerical uniform if you please. They clung tenaciously to certain forms of expression that they claimed must be used in defining their faith in order to be orthodox. Certain traditions concerning the washing of pots and of their hands and such like things were the all-absorbing themes of their worship and daily rounds of temple service. Under such a régime, is it any wonder that the scribes and Pharisees of Christ's time made their religion to consist of ostentatious fastings, prayers on the street corners, and other like things, to be seen and heard of men? And is it any marvel that such religious teachers should have lost their spiritual power with the people, so that they were under the necessity of fastening the most slavish chains of superstitious requirements upon them in order to even nominally hold them to the services of the synagogues? But when the great Teacher sent of God began His work, "He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." The officers of the law who were sent to arrest Christ returned, saying, "Never man spake like this man." John 7:46. There was something about the Master's teaching that was not only fascinating, but it was strangely convincing to the people of His time. They had not been used to such words of power. The lifeless discourses of the scribes and Pharisees were set in most marked contrast to the positive and confident expressions of truth that came like healing music from the lips of the Messiah. The secret of this great power that was wrapped up in the words of Christ lay in the fact that He was telling that which He had unbounded and unquestioned faith in Himself. He knew that the words He was speaking were true. He gave expression to His own deep convictions of eternal truth. He had been with the Father and knew the truth; and knowing the truth He did not give Himself to the discussions of speculative theory, but advanced at once to plainly tell what He knew. He had met Satan's keenest temptations, and had felt the force and cunning of his malignant power. But through it all He had stood secure in the mighty strength of His Father in heaven. He not only had the knowledge, but He had the experiences of the power of divine truth. And when He came before the people to teach, it was to affirm boldly and with authority what He so perfectly knew. The great trouble with so much of the religious teaching to-day is that it lacks point; it lacks the power of faith, and a personal knowledge and conviction of the truth of God. Preachers present themselves; they seek to charm us with their eloquence or please us by the literary excellence of their discourses. But what is needed is the eloquence of the mighty Gospel that saves sinners—the literary merit of the Word of God itself, melted into the very soul by the Spirit and power of God. Men often ask, Why has the Gospel, the pure, simple Gospel of Christ, lost its power? It has not. It is a mistake to think or say so. It is not that the Gospel has lost its power, but men have lost the Gospel. They have left the Gospel to one side, while they have given themselves to the discussion of dead theories like the scribes of old. What a fatal mistake this is! If you long for power in your life or in your preaching or teaching, take time to learn in the school of the great Teacher Himself. He holds the secret of presenting the power and authority of truth, and not the dead formalism of the scribes. He wants to give you the same power. Will you let Him? T. THE EXTENT OF THE GOSPEL.
By Editor
A LETTER comes to us from one whom we greatly respect asking in substance why we are politically partisan, and intimating that we are against the administration, and are in spirit sympathizers with the enemies of the government, because we have taken the position we have as regards "expansion" and "imperialism." This is a mild summary of the charges which our friend brings against us. Let us consider them. First of all, "expansion" or "imperialism," from a political view point, is not a party issue. The majority of the papers of both the great parties of the country favor it. What is claimed to be the leading Democratic paper of the East and its counterpart of the West, owned by the same man, conducted under the same policy, are enthusiastic advocates of imperialism. Leading Republican papers also favor it. The opposite is also true, and great papers of both parties and no party are found on the other side. So also voices of eminent politicians in both great parties, and professors in our great universities are found on both sides of the same question. Whichever side, therefore, one may take on the question of expansion or imperialism, even from a political view point, does not of itself constitute him a partisan. Moreover nothing that we have said is from the politician's standpoint. In the second place we are not against the administration. We believe, according to the scripture, that we should "render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." Furthermore, we do not know as matters would be better were the administration to change its politics. The Christian's Position.
We are Christians. THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES is a Christian paper. We belong to Christ, to His kingdom, to His service. "We are ambassadors for Christ, as tho God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 2 Cor. 5:20. To his servants He has committed the Gospel message of teaching men the way of life and salvation, of warning them of the certain ruin which follows transgression, of proclaiming, declaring, the sure refuge and remedy in Jesus Christ, and of exhorting, beseeching, persuading men to turn to Christ and live. It is all summed up in "Repent ye, and believe the Gospel." Mark 1:15. And to His watchman God says: "If thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand." Read Eze. 33:1-11. This blessed Gospel of instruction, of faithful warning, of proclamation of good news, of exhortation, is to be preached to all, high and low, rich and poor, master and servant, ruler and subject, freemen and slave. "Preach the Gospel to every creature," is the command of Christ. Set forth the divine principles of life before all men. This Gospel is to be preached to persons not in the private walks of life alone, but in public. It touches a man's conduct everywhere. God desires to save men wherever they are. He desires the politician to be a Christian as truly as He does the planter. He longs to save the congressman as truly as He does the carpenter. He wishes to deliver from the bondage of sin the statesman as truly as He does the lowest stoker. Principles of life inwrought by grace into the heart of the governor are as precious in God's sight as in the heart of the gardener. Politician or planter, congressman or carpenter, statesman or stoker, governor or gardener, all are men, and for all Christ died. If astray, all need faithful warning of the inevitable destruction which follows the violation of the principles of righteousness and justice. The mission of the ambassadors of Christ is, therefore, to rulers and those who shape the State and nation, as well as to men in the common walks of life. Jesus also said, "Teach all nations." He told His servant of old: "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." Jer. 1:10. Jeremiah did this by declaring the principles upon which a nation could continue to exist, and which if violated would bring destruction; for thus saith the Lord: "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them." Jer. 18:7-10. And so we learn by chapter 25 that Jeremiah's message went to "all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth." Jonah was sent to Nineveh with a message for every soul, from the proud king upon his throne to the lowest scullion in his kitchen. "Shall there be evil in the city, and shall not the Lord do somewhat? Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret to His servants the prophets." Amos 3:7, margin. Daniel taught the proud rulers of Babylon that "the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever He will." He warned them of the inevitable ruin which would follow if the government persisted in its rebellion against God. He pointed out the sure refuge, to "break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor." He pronounced at last, in the final hours of that proud empire, her doom, "Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Tekel, thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting." Elijah faithfully preached before the apostate Ahab and his wickeder wife Jezebel. He was called a troubler in Israel, and was doubtless counted as against the administration; but there was no man so strongly for Israel's salvation. And when the people, with the king at the head, refused to heed the ringing cry, "How long halt ye between two opinions? if Jehovah be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him;" and then the king, in the face of God's manifest working, remained obdurate, the heart of the great prophet nearly broke with sorrow and disappointment. But standing in the presence of God, he ever gave his message. John the Baptist gave his message to publican and Pharisee, to priest and prince; and lost his head because of his faithfulness. Jesus Christ proclaimed the same blessed Gospel,—designed always to do earth and its people good and not evil,—to all classes, from the poor outcast woman to the high priest, from the civil tax-gatherer to the Roman governor. He was, as a result of his faithfulness, condemned by the ecclesiastical tribunal as a blasphemer, and by the civil ruler as guilty of treason, or sedition. "All these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come." Elijah the prophet and John the Baptist are types of God's faithful servants of these days. Idolatrous Jezebel and weak, yielding Ahab are types of a backslidden church and a weak, yielding State. This nation was founded on righteous principles. It grew and prospered. The Christian church was founded on righteous principles. It grew and prospered, notwithstanding the fiercest persecutions. The Reformation churches—the Protestant—started out on right principles, and they prospered despite all the power of the Papacy. But the church is departing from the true, vital principles of Protestantism, or Christianity. The nation is becoming blinded and proving false to the very principles which constituted its life, and which must be perpetuated in practice if its existence long continues. God has forwarned us concerning these very things in His Word. He has pointed it out in general and in detail. In His goodness He has brought it to us. Shall we listlessly fold our hands, close our ears, eyes, and mouth, and say nothing? or shall we, as Christian men who see the sword coming, give faithful warning of the dangers which beset before and behind this as grand a nation as this sinful world ever knew? Shall we hold back our message for fear of being misunderstood? We love this great, grand country in which we were born; we love its rocks and rills, its woods and templed hills; we love its people, the purchase of Christ's blood. But men die here. The silent grave and marble headstone are the end of earth life and fame. "The true gain is the long gain." We desire that all shall know the long gain, the life eternal, the better country, even the heavenly; the blessings and privileges of citizenship in Christ Jesus; and therefore we proclaim the Gospel, the whole Gospel. 934. "Without Strength."
By Editor
Please explain the expression in the SIGNS of January 18, page 51, second column: "Moreover, there is not one who has strength to do the law," and this by the same writer: "It is not that we are simply given the ability to keep the law" (SIGNS March 22, page 196, column 3). The first, it will be seen by the context, has reference to the carnal man, the man "without strength," the man who has "sinned and come short of the glory of God," the man who has the "carnal mind," which "is enmity against God." God asks more of sinful man than he can perform in order that man may seek help in the One mighty to save. The latter expression, it will also be seen by the context, refers to the man set free in Christ Jesus, who is given "the mind of the Spirit," and the strength of God. Both are absolutely true. The bound man, fettered in brain and body, hand and foot, can not walk; it is the free man who walks. Jesus Christ sets the bound sinner free. WHITENING THE SEPULCHERS.
By W. N. G.
A MEMBER of the council of this city, who is fathering a measure for reform in the conduct of saloons, gives his reasons in a recent issue of the Tribune. He says:— "The question of side entrances and back rooms connected with saloons is a serious matter. I have been considering it for some time before taking any action in the matter. It has become such an evil in the community that some action is necessary to put a check to the practise in order to protect the moral standing of the city." Now everybody knows that the greatest evil connected with a saloon is the sale of intoxicating liquors; that by far the greater number of patrons enter through the front door, and drink in the front room. But our reform councilmen have no worry over these greater features of the saloon evil. They see evil only in the side entrances and back rooms. This is admitted in plain language:— "The intention of the ordinance is not to close the saloons. There is not one of the councilmen who would be in favor of that. It is only to remedy the evil connected with the dispensing of liquors as we see it." There is another class of people who are much exercised in behalf of the evil effects of the saloon on the "moral standing of the city." But, like the councilman herein quoted, their burden is over a certain feature of the evil, and not the evil itself. They also are straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel; they would try to purify the stream which runs from a cess-pool fountain. This class see evil in the saloons only on Sunday. It may be licensed, and they will clamor for a high license for the sake of the revenue that will go to the support of some good purpose; but when opened on Sunday the saloon becomes a terrible menace to the "moral standing of the city." It was demonstrated two years ago that many of them do not favor closing the saloon altogether. It is all right six days in the week, but on the other one day it is very demoralizing. It is just so with all mere human efforts at moral reform. They are all deception. The whited sepulcher is still full of corruption and death. There is no true moral reform excepting on Gospel lines. Jesus Christ never compromised with evil; He never sought to make anything better by simply making it appear better; He never sought to counteract evil influence by merely shortening its hours or limiting its operation to six days in the week; He never sought to nullify the miasma of a poisonous tree by cutting off its worst-appearing branches. He laid the ax at the root of the tree; and no man can successfully minister in His name while compromising with evil for one hour in the week. There is no moral reform in licensing a single entrance to the den of strong drink. The saloon is bad; it is only bad; it is bad all the time. It is bad in the front room as well as in the back room. The front room is the fountain; the glittering attraction is there; the invitation to enter is there most conspicuous. The back rooms are but the murky streams fed by the gilded front room. The enticement, the allurement, begins with the brilliant exterior. The higher the license, the greater the boast by the proprietors of how much good their license money does. The more they are made to appear respectable and harmless, the greater their power to deceive. Says one class, Close the back room and the side entrance; says another, Take down the screens; says another, Close them on Sunday; says another, Close them at 10 or 12 P.M. All this in the name of moral reform; but grant each and all of these "reforms," and what is left?—The saloon is left; the intoxicating drink curse is left; the deceptive notion that the saloon has been divested of evil is left. The "better class of citizens" feel that they have accomplished a great moral reform, and rest secure in their own righteousness. But the saloon goes right on in its work of soul-destruction. Give the saloon demon license for six days in the week, sixteen to eighteen hours a day, with one room and one door, and all the attendant and consequent evils so loudly deplored will surely follow. The only remedy for the saloon curse is to root up the saloon. W. N. G. HIGHER CRITICISM DECRIED.
By G. B. Thompson
EVANGELIST MUNHALL of Philadelphia, Penn., made some disturbing statements at a meeting of Methodist ministers recently. He arraigned the so-called "higher critics," according to a report in the New York World, of April 18, 1899, as follows:— "The Rev. Dr. L. W. Munhall, evangelist, of Philadelphia, raised a storm of criticism and contention yesterday at the weekly meeting of Methodist preachers at No. 150 Fifth Avenue. His theme was 'The Integrity and Authority of the Bible.' He conceded at the outset that many of those who teach 'higher criticism' are entirely honest, but he denounced their teaching. "Nearly every objection raised against the integrity of the Bible by the 'higher critics,' he said, could be found in Voltaire's works and Paine's 'Age of Reason.' "The enemy," he continued, "used to be outside the breastworks; he is now inside—in our pulpits, in our educational institutions and our editorial chairs. But it is the same battle, and the weapons used against the book are the very same the infidels have always used." "The preacher said that recently, when Mr. Ingersoll was asked for a friend why he did not longer give his lecture against the Bible, he replied:— "The professors and preachers are doing that work much better than I possibly can, and their influence is much greater than mine." "I do know that, in two of our theological schools, the Old Testament professors are giving their students all the objections against the integrity of the record, and making no attempt whatever to answer these objections. And these students are going out to fill our pulpits, with little or no knowledge of the Bible; their minds filled with objections to the book the church commissions them to preach. Can any one reasonably expect spiritual results from the ministry of such men? I know of one of these young men who, within four years of his ordination, left the Methodist Episcopal Church, became pastor of a Congregational Church, then pastor of a Unitarian Church, and then a blatant infidel, all in the same town. "A wealthy member of our church, a delegate to the last General Conference, told me: 'I sent my oldest son to a Methodist educational institution not 500 miles from New York City. Before he left home he was considered by all who knew him to be a model Christian young man. He would conduct family worship, lead the church prayer-meeting, was a teacher in the Sunday-school, and would speak and exhort in the meetings of the church. While at school he came under the influence of a certain professor, who is a higher critic. He came home an infidel, and has not been inside a church since.'" "Regarding the present condition of affairs, Dr. Munhall said, 'The doctrine of a sanctified life is in contempt among us. Worldliness is on the increase. The theater, race track, and dance halls have been patronized as never before. In many parts of the country the Sabbath is little better respected than in France. . . . Agnosticism, Rationalism, Theosophy, Christian Science, Spiritualism, and many other delusions are alarmingly on the increase. Intemperance and crime also are increasing with rapid strides.'" "Dr. Munhall referred to an address made by the Rev. Dr. Cadman, who was present. The latter was much excited, and retorted vehemently:— "I claim to be just as loyal to Jesus Christ as any man here, and I don't go about the country telling my brethren that Methodist ministers are deserting the faith. Dr. Buckley tells me to keep cool, and I'll sit down." "The Rev. Dr. Anderson declared that Dr. Munhall was himself guilty of heresy. Dr. John Rhey Thompson said that the paper he had heard read was the most dangerous he had listened to in a long time. He said he was satisfied that the book of Isaiah had two authors and exclaimed: 'If that is heresy, prepare your charges.' Dr. Thompson wound up with a defiant declaration that he believed in evolution and had taught it twenty-five years. "In spite of all the opposition, Dr. A. B. Leonard moved a vote of thanks to Dr. Munhall, which was adopted." It is sad to think that the enemy inside of the breastworks is doing such effective work that the redoubtable "colonel" no longer finds it necessary to take up the cudjel against the Bible. Professed watchmen on the walls of Zion, placing in a new setting the ideas published by Paine and Voltaire, is indeed a scene calculated to make angels weep! But even this Dr. Munhall charges, and we greatly fear his charge is not overdrawn. "It is time for Thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void Thy law." Ps. 119: 126. G. B. THOMPSON.