Earlier text: FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. No. 8.“THE LOW-WATER MARK.”
By Editor
THAT is what the Catholic Mirror calls the colored supplement to the large Sunday editions of the daily papers. In part it says: While the illustration of books and magazines has developed a high degree of artistic excellence, both in subject and treatment, the illustration of the daily papers—especially as it relates to the comic element,7 on which these journals lay great stress—grows constantly worse in every particular; and the colored supplement denotes its low-water mark. . . . Who has not watched, on a pleasant Sunday morning in some country village or watering-place, the arrival of the train or boat, bearing these fell messengers of a crude civilization? A crowd listlessly awaits their appearance, and when they come, the crowd becomes a mob for their possession. There is a distinct preference for the hideous yellow, red, green, and blue splotches which form the prevailing "color-schemes" of these corrupting sheets. Long before a merciful twilight comes with its effacing touch, the sidewalks, piazzas, the rustic seats, are strewn with these diseased windfalls of the press. It is impossible to describe the vulgarity and insanity of their drawing and coloring; and it can not be that the editors, who must be men of some ability, however devoid of scruples, approve of their own mischievous work. . . . Even readers whose time is so valueless that they can afford to waste more than a glance at a Sunday paper must realize how worthless pictures of this sort really are. It is the children who suffer, for they absorb unconsciously the unsavory quality of such efforts to amuse, and are thus the involuntary victims of voluntary and responsible corruptionists. At a time when this country is seriously trying to impart knowledge of, and stimulate a taste for, better things, artistic and esthetic, through exhibitions in museums, libraries, and even in Sunday-schools, it is not a little disheartening to realize that every step in this direction gets a weekly setback through these colored atrocities. We are the most humorous, if not the wittiest, people on earth, and yet we maintain the colored Sunday supplement, while other nations, the quality of whose humor is displayed in art incomparably better than ours, get along very comfortably without them. And it is all true and more. The power of our much boasted "press" is often used to corrupt and vitiate taste, and hence morals. CHURCH AND STATE.
By George Ide Butler
FRANCE, the great European republic, claims to have separated the church from the state; but in the new cabinet, which has grown out of the throes of separation, it has been found necessary to retain the office of minister of public worship. The most disastrous scheme that Satanic cunning ever injected into the affairs of men is the union of church and state. It is Babylonian, whether actual and formal, or merely virtual tho unprofessed. The Reformation under Luther was a protest against this principle, but even Protestants never were able to entirely shake it off. And so insidious are the workings of the delusion that nearly every denomination growing out of the perversion of that Protestantism are now influenced by it—we might say, practically committed to it. The Lutheran Church itself is a state church wherever such a consummation is possible. Even in the United States, where separation of church and state is a fundamental principle of the government, we have Sunday observance, a religious institution, enforced by law in nearly all the states and territories. We have religious teaching sustained by the general government. We have a religious lobby established at the national capital, for the avowed purpose of influencing legislation and securing the enactment of religious laws; and this “bureau” has secured the free use of the mails for the circulation of large quantities of its peculiar literature. We have a National Reform Association, encouraged by nearly every nominal Protestant denomination, whose fundamental purpose is to “place all the Christian laws, institutions, and usages of our government on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land.” We have also, as a crowning movement, the Federation of Churches, recently formed—including about thirty religious denominations—whose main purpose is to wield a political influence in the government. This federation has received the encouragement of federal and state officials, including members of the Supreme Court, senators, and even the President. Thus the nominal Christian church in America is about as prominent in the manipulation of politics as are any of the state churches of the Old World. And the trend is onward toward formal official recognition—the full-fledged “image” foretold in Revelation 13. So long as the adversary of Christ can delude professed Christians with the idea that it is their business to influence earthly governments through political power, or to control them in any way, just to that extent he can hinder true Gospel effort. G. NOT PRECEDENT, BUT JUSTICE.
In a communication in the Minneapolis Journal of February 25, Mr. Joseph E. Pierce, of Neenah, Wis., discusses the subject, "Wherein the Sunday Law Is Not Right." After making reference to the Minnesota Sunday law, the writer continues: In "Elements of Right and the Law" (section 520), Mr. Smith says: "It is a well-established principle of the American law that an act of Congress in excess of the constitutional powers of the federal government is absolutely void; and so far as the direct infringement of private rights is concerned, this principle is in fact enforced by the courts; but in questions merely political there is in general no practical means of restraining the execution of the law. Nevertheless, such a law is void, and not only affords no legal justification to any one seeking to enforce it, but every subordinate officer, and indeed every private individual, has the right to disobey it, and will be vindicated in so doing by the courts." Under the Constitution of the United States, the individual retains his natural rights, and government is limited accordingly. And as every individual equally has the natural right to worship whom he pleases and on what day he pleases (as long as he interferes not with this same liberty in others), or to refrain from worshiping altogether, any human law interfering with this right is, under our constitutions, void; it matters not whether it be a Sunday law, a law to compel him to attend church, or a law requiring any other religious observance, if it interferes with the right of a single individual, it is unconstitutional and absolutely void. It is true that our judiciary have not always had a clear conception of this principle, and numerous decisions are flatly contradictory. But this is because in some cases precedents have been followed, not principle. Law, by some, has been regarded as a bundle of previous decisions, rather than as science founded, like other sciences, on the immutable law of nature. The erroneousness of such a view must be obvious to all who have given it any reflection. "The law of England," Lord Mansfield observed, "would be an absurd science were it founded on precedent only," and Lord Coke repeatedly declared that the law "is the perfection of reason." "Reason," said he, "is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason." And should our judges and legislators incline more to justice and reason and less to the precedents dictated by bigotry, our government will become more liberal, and that relic of the Dark Ages, the Sunday law, will go the way that similar laws have gone before it. In order to fulfil the objects of government, every man must be insured "the fullest liberty to exercise his faculties compatible with the exercise of like liberty by every other man." This is the principle asserted in the Declaration of Independence when it says, "All men are created equal," and the repeated departures from it in our religious laws which discriminate against the Sabbatarian and the Jew are a standing reproach to our government and a constant travesty on justice. A San Francisco journal, Gleason's Horizon, notes the source of the current flood of social remissness in the following terse paragraph: We have thought that our troubles would take the form of a revolution of the working classes against the industrial lords. We have feared the red flag, and the red hand of Socialism. We have trembled only for what might come rumbling up from below, like volcanic disturbances. And lo! here rises this monstrous form of moral anarchy in the political and civil world, this deep shadow of dishonesty in the business world that is just now boasting of phenomenal prosperity! And the striking feature about it is that the evil is most conspicuous in the upper crust of the social world, among men who rank high in the social world. But a greater surprise—to many who are following Socialism—will come when its leaders shall have come to be the "upper crust," their expectant goal. It is not what Socialism is now that is so much to be dreaded as what it will be when it gets the upper hand. It is safe to predict that as the Socialist boat nears the prospective shore, the "upper crust" politicians, infected with the views of moral anarchy, will be piling in, and as it enters the haven, the shrewder ones will be seen at the helm. That the "deadly wound" of the church-and-state "beast" power is in process of healing, and the consummation is near at hand, is receiving confirmation from all sources. A good witness in the case is Cardinal Gibbons. Referring to the terrible reverses following the outbreak of the Reformation, he says: "Ireland alone, of all the nations of Northern Europe, remained faithful to the ancient church." Then, as to the restoration of that church's power and influence, he continues (the Catholic Mirror of Jan. 13, 1906): Let us now calmly survey the field after the din and smoke of battle have passed away. Let us examine the condition of the old church after having passed through those deadly conflicts. We see her numerically stronger to-day than at any previous period of her history. The losses she sustained in the Old World are more than compensated by her acquisitions in the New. She has already recovered a good portion of the ground wrested from her in the sixteenth century. She numbers now about 250,000,000 adherents. She exists to-day, not an effete institution, but in all the integrity and fulness of life, with her organism unimpaired, more united, more compact, and more vigorous than ever she was before. It is reported from Mankato, Minn., that the ministerial association, composed of the leading Protestant ministers, has put a stop to Sunday performances at the theater. A DRUGGIST of Portsmouth, Ohio, was recently fined $50 and costs in the mayor's court for selling beer on Sunday. A SUNDAY-OBSERVANCE society has been organized at Washburn, Wis., with over a hundred members. Of course it is political, and the purpose is to sound candidates for municipal office, as to their positions on enforced Sunday observance. AN Evangelical Conference at Easton, Pa., February 24, adopted a resolution upholding the so-called "Christian Sabbath," and condemning those corporations that conduct business on that day. FOR years theaters have been closed in Duluth, Wis., excepting for concerts and lectures. But one manager has recently defied the ordinance, with the intention to test its validity in the courts. THE board of public safety of Louisville, Ky., having issued an order to close theaters on Sunday, arrests of managers and actors of three playhouses followed, on February 25. At two of the places, ticket-sellers and door-keepers were arrested, as well as the actors and managers of the houses and companies. In the police court the next day Judge McCann dismissed the cases, holding that the singling out of three theaters was discrimination. The judge stated that he was not passing upon the validity of the Sunday-closing law, as that question was not before him, but that if it was to be enforced, there must be no discrimination against a certain class of alleged offenders. THE absolute enforcement of the Sunday law was recently inaugurated at Oxford, Ohio, by the mayor. Druggists, confectioners, restaurant-keepers, and hotels were notified to sell no cigars, nor anything save necessities. Liverymen were forbidden to rent vehicles on Sunday, news agents were told to bring no more Sunday papers to Oxford, and even the postmaster was cautioned against opening the post-office on Sunday. Thus the executive of a little city assumes authority above that of the federal government. But that is the spirit ever engendered by religious legislation. It is the same spirit that actuated the Papacy to assume superiority over kings and emperors. Religious legislation by a civil power is always the fruit of religious bigotry, and must ever result in more assumption, as it is an aggressive policy that knows no limit, save as its opportunity is limited by public sentiment. A RESOLUTION asking the mayor to enforce the Sunday law was adopted by all the ministerial associations of Philadelphia on February 26. This action was taken at the instance of the Philadelphia Sabbath Association, which prepared the resolution and sent representatives to the various ministers' meetings to secure its adoption. The resolution was passed by the Baptist ministers at their meeting in the First Baptist church only after considerable opposition, the ministers not desiring to endorse a movement for prohibiting the sale of necessities. When Rev. A. F. Williamson had finished reading the resolution, the expressions of opposition were strong. Questions as to whether the sale of ice would be prohibited on Sunday and trolley cars stopped, and other forms of necessary labor interfered with, were asked. When it was explained that no such radical steps were intended, a resolution was finally passed adopting the paper from the Sabbath Association. Evidently the Philadelphia Sabbath Association is moving in the direction of another such Sunday-enforcement campaign as it waged in Philadelphia two years ago, when it hounded and persecuted the small dealers until public sentiment compelled a cessation of the crusade. Back to Rome.—The Watchword and Truth, of Boston, in speaking of the Federation of Protestant Churches, says: 'If the union proposed had in view greater efficiency in the God-appointed work of the church, it would, indeed, be a matter for rejoicing. But when it proposes to control 'all matters affecting the moral and social conditions of the people,' and when political and civic relations are included, we call a halt. This is the very thing which Rome aspires to accomplish now. . . . Moreover, this purpose may promote hypocrisy by making it desirable for politicians to have the backing of 'the combined influences of the churches' on election day. This promises to bring us back to the days of Roman supremacy, when, in the words of Milman, 'The moral authority of religion, and consequently of the clergy, might appear legitimately to extend over every transaction of life, from the legislation of the sovereign, to the domestic duties of the peasant.' We fear that this will lead to many evils, and not the least will be the destruction of every barrier between a witnessing church and a government state. It will make the state a piece of machinery through which the church may accomplish her arbitrary will. It may not be that the Protestant attempt at this rôle in the future will be productive of anything better than the sorrowful persecution of the church of Rome in the past. Be careful to render unto Cæsar the things of Cæsar, and to God the things of God.' Standing for Principle.
By Editor
William J. Bryan was president of the Illinois College of Jacksonville, his Alma Mater, and the oldest educational institution west of the Alleghany Mountains. Mr. Bryan assisted it to the extent of $5,000 a few years ago, and was made president. The board wished to profit by Mr. Andrew Carnegie's gift to colleges, and Mr. Bryan felt that the accepting of such a gift would have the effect of blinding the eyes of the college directors to economic truth, and convert the college into an ally of plutocracy. He feels that the college can not serve God and mammon. After entering his protest unavailingly, he felt called upon to resign. Now the right or wrong of this we do not discuss, but we honor the man who will stand for principle, tho he may be unwittingly wrong. Better a Saul persecuting the church because he believed it to be his duty, than some weak-kneed politician who trims his sails for all winds. There is more hope for the former wrong than for the latter right. Lowell has well said: "I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his present repute for his freedom to think;
And when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t'other half for the freedom to speak."
The world needs honest, single-minded men. God can bring such men to his truth, and He will if it takes a sevenfold brightness to check their mad career, as it did that of Saul of Tarsus. In more ways than one it would pay people to heed the advice of Holy Writ and avoid contact with soothsayers, wizards, necromancers, charmers, consultors with familiar spirits, etc. In these days they are known as mediums, fortune-tellers, clairvoyants, hypnotists, etc. A mere passing incident is noted in a recent press despatch from Syracuse, N. Y.: "Mrs. Carrie E. Merriam, widow of Thomas Merriam, a wealthy manufacturer, has complained to the police that Professor Ross Edwards, after placing her in a trance, induced her to go to a bank and draw out $4,000 with which, she declares, he departed. Professor Edwards, a clairvoyant, came to this city recently with his wife and a niece. Mrs. Merriam called on him to have her fortune told." If it were only money that people lose by patronizing these Satanic agencies, it would not matter so much. It is the loss of soul which comes of tampering with these forbidden associations that constitutes the greatest loss. Even if one should "gain the whole world" through advice of such counselors, it would not pay for the consequent loss of soul. The Christian life is not a weak substitute for the life of the world; it is a new and more abundant life, different in aims, in objects, in nature, from the old. He who has it is "born from above." THE GIFT OF GIFTS.
By H. A. St. John
JESUS is not only the Servant of servants, the Prince of princes, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords; but He is also the Gift of gifts. In the beginning, when the Lord made the world and all things therein, He constituted man the ruler of the beautiful dominion. Adam, together with Eve his lovely wife, was crowned with glory and honor. While the form of government was theocratical and kingly, it was also paternal in the highest sense. The first human pair were enjoined to multiply and replenish the earth. Hence, the subjects of their kingdom, scattered abroad over all the beautiful earth, would have been the legitimate offspring of the king and queen, and for any of them to go to Paradise to see the king in his beauty and glory would have been simply a visit to the old homestead to visit father Adam, and mother Eve. And who can imagine a world thus governed, and thus peopled. It would be but one vast family, all dwelling together in love, and in the purity of holiness. All governed by the one great law of life, namely: "With love serve one another." This glorious plan was early thwarted by the sin of the first pair. But through Jesus, the second Adam, the grand purpose of God with relation to this world will eventually be accomplished. Immediately after the failure of Adam the first, Jesus, the beloved Son of the Almighty Father, gave Himself for the redemption of a lost and sinful world. At the very gates of Paradise Jesus began to reveal Himself as the unspeakable gift of God to man. For four thousand years the gift of the Son of God was manifested in type by priests and sacrifices. And His manifestations for the salvation of man were continually seen in the many revelations of His will through holy men and holy angels. At the end of that long period of giving His life in glory for man, we come to the mystery of incarnation, at Bethlehem, when Jesus laid down His life in glory, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and in sinful flesh humbled Himself as a man. Then, through infancy, childhood, youth, and manhood, He gave His entire life for man. We may be enabled by the grace He giveth, to do the works that He did, teach the Gospel of salvation that He taught, and live the life that He lived. It is thus that the gift of His life in mortal guise is made of infinite value to us. The Crowning Act of the Gift.
Then on Calvary Jesus laid down His mortal life for us. As our great and good Shepherd, He then and there laid down His life for the sheep. On the third day Jesus took up His life again. But it was a glorified life, in the glory that He had with the Father before the world was. Now He is in the presence of God for us. Even in glory, at the right hand of the eternal Father, He is ministering His life for us. Through the instrumentalities of holy truth, holy angels, and the Holy Spirit, Jesus is freely giving us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, all things necessary to our moral redemption. At no distant day His life of mediatorship, and intercession for us will end. He will deliver up His priestly work for sinners, and lay down His life as Priest-King, which life has been given freely to us, a gift which will bring eternal loss to all who reject it, and eternal gain to all who have accepted it. But when Jesus leaves His mediatorial throne, He will immediately enter upon a reign of greater glory and exaltation. His Father will give Him dominion, glory, and a kingdom, and seated upon His own throne of glory, He will begin His eternal reign in Paradise restored, the New Jerusalem. His kingdom and dominion will embrace the whole earth made new. It will be the first dominion as given to the first Adam, recast, redeemed, and glorified. No more curse, hence, no more sin, sickness, or death. This glorious reign of Christ as King of Kings in the kingdom of glory, will be without end. But that kingdom, together with its all-glorious King, will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. For the last time, and for all eternity, Jesus, as the Morning Star, will give Himself to His people. In that eternal state it will be seen that Jesus, the second Adam, has a great multitude of children who have been made His by being "born again," "born from above," and thus becoming new creatures in Christ Jesus. He is their "everlasting Father," and with this innumerable host of redeemed ones He has replenished the new earth. Then forevermore it will be the supreme joy of our adorable Redeemer to give Himself to all the heavenly family in the ministration of life, and knowledge, and peace, and bliss, without alloy, through the endless cycles of eternity. Jesus, the Gift of gifts, is ours, all ours. Let us accept and cherish the Gift; then, with Him, we shall receive all good things. O, how can we keep from singing? H. A. ST. JOHN. OUR GREAT TREASURE-HOUSE
By Ellen G. White
SHOULD the angel Gabriel be sent to this world to take upon himself human nature, and to teach the knowledge of God, how eagerly men would listen to his instruction. Supposing that he were able to set us a perfect example of purity and holiness, sympathizing with us in all our sorrows, bereavements, and afflictions, and suffering the punishment of our sins, how eagerly we would follow him. What exaltation he would receive. Men would desire to place him on the throne of David, and to gather the nations of earth under his banner. If, when this heavenly being returned to his home, he should leave behind him a book containing the history of his mission, with revelations regarding the history of the world, how eagerly would its seal be broken! How anxiously men and women would seek to obtain a copy! Thinking people would store up the precious instruction for the benefit of future generations. Thousands from all parts of the world would copy the words of this book. With intense interest they would read and reread its pages. For a time all other interests would be subordinated to a study of its contents. But one surpassing all that imagination can present came from heaven to this world. Nearly two thousand years ago a voice of strange and mysterious import was heard from the throne of God, "Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me. . . . Lo, I come . . . to do Thy will, O God." A prophet said: "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulders; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Of Himself Christ declares, "Before Abraham was, I AM." "I and My Father are One." "As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." As Paul beheld Christ in His power, he broke out into exclamations of admiration and amazement: "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." "By Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. . . . For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." The Voice of the Infinite.
The Bible is God's voice speaking to us, just as surely as if we could hear it with our ears. If we realized this, with what awe we would open God's Word, and with what earnestness we would search its precepts. The reading and contemplation of the Scriptures would be regarded as an audience with the Infinite One. Christ reproached His disciples with their slowness of comprehension. They were influenced by maxims and traditionary lore, so that the truths spoken by the greatest Teacher the world has ever known were often lost truths to them. Christ led them to realize that He had put them in possession of truths of which they little suspected the value. After His resurrection, as He was walking to Emmaus with two of the disciples, He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures, so explaining the Old Testament to them that they saw in its teachings a meaning that the writers themselves had not seen. Life and Light in the Word.
Christ's words are the bread of life. As the disciples ate the words of Christ, their understanding was quickened. They understood better the value of the Saviour's teachings. In their comprehension of these teachings they stepped from the obscurity of dawn to the radiance of noonday. So will it be with us as we study God's Word. Our minds will be quickened, and our understanding enlarged. Those who receive and assimilate this Word, making it a part of every act, of every attribute of character, grow strong in the strength of God. It gives vigor to the soul, perfecting the experience, and bringing joys that abide forever.