Earlier text: Publishers' PageWhy “Reforms” Do Not Reform
By L. A. S.
In the April number of McClure’s Magazine, Mr. Lincoln Steffens, author of “The Shame of the Cities,” states some interesting facts telling why “reformations” in American municipal and State governments, so frequent in the present stage of American history, do not reform. In brief, it is, he says, because “corruption”—that which must be swept away by reform—is not a thing of one locality, city, party, or organization, but a thing of all places and all spheres of activity, industrial as well as political. Neither does it stand alone in any one place or party, so that to secure reform in a city it is only necessary to overthrow those upholding corruption in that particular place; but it is, everywhere, a part of a system which extends from city to legislature and to Congress, and from politics into business. Mr. Steffens describes it thus:— Every time I attempted to trace to its sources the political corruption of a city ring, the stream of pollution branched off in the most unexpected directions, and spread out in a network of veins and arteries so complex that hardly any part of the body politic seemed clear of it. It flowed out of the majority back into the minority; out of politics into vice and crime; out of business into politics, and back into business; from the boss, down through the police to the prostitute, and up through the practise of law into the courts; and big, throbbing arteries ran out through the country over the State to the nation—and back. No wonder cities can’t get municipal reform! No wonder Minneapolis, having cleaned out its police ring of vice-grafters, now discovers boodle in the council! No wonder Chicago, with council reform and boodle beaten, finds itself a Minneapolis of police and administrative graft! No wonder Pittsburg, when it broke out of its local ring, fell, amazed, into a State ring! No wonder New York, with good government, votes itself back again into Tammany Hall! They are on the wrong track; we are, all of us, on the wrong track. You can’t reform a city by reforming part of it. You can’t reform a city alone. You can’t reform politics alone. And as for corruption and the understanding thereof, we can not run round and round in municipal rings and understand ring corruption; it isn’t a ring thing. We can not remain in one city, or ten, and comprehend municipal corruption; it isn’t a local thing. We can not “stick to a party” and follow party corruption; it isn’t a partizan thing. And I have found that I can not confine myself to politics and grasp all the ramifications of political corruption; it isn’t political corruption. It’s corruption. The corruption of our American politics is our American corruption, political, but financial and industrial, too. Miss Tarbell is showing it in the trust, Mr. Baker in the labor union, and my gropings into the misgovernment of cities have drawn me everywhere, but always out of politics into business, and out of the cities into the State. Business started the corruption of politics in Pittsburg; upholds it in Philadelphia; boomed with it in Chicago, and withered with its reform; and7 in New York, business financed the return of Tammany Hall. Here then is our guide out of the labyrinth. Not the political ring, but big business,—that is the crux of the situation. Our political corruption is a system, a regularly established custom of the country, by which our political leaders are hired by bribery, by the license to loot, and by quiet moral support, to conduct the government of city, State, and nation, not for the common good, but for the special interests of private business. Not the politician then, not the bribe taker, but the bribe giver, the man we are so proud of, our successful business man—he is the source and the sustenance of our bad government. The captain of industry is the man to catch. His is the trail to follow. Taking the State of Missouri as an example, where Circuit-Attorney Folk has become conspicuous by his attack upon corruption in its chief city, Mr. Steffens mentions the various classes of citizens concerned in the exposures Mr. Folk has made. He says:— The lid was off in Missouri. The stone Mr. Folk had had so long to leave unturned, was lifted. What was under it? Squirming in the light and writhing off into their dark holes, were State senators and State officers, State committeemen and party leaders; but also there were the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Missouri Pacific Railroad, the St. Louis and San Francisco, the Iron Mountain and Southern, the Wabash; Mr. Folk’s old friend, the St. Louis Transit Company; the breweries, the stock yards, the telephone companies; business men of St. Louis, St. Joseph, and Kansas City—the big business of the whole State. There they were—the “contemptible bribe taker” and the very “respectable” bribe giver, all doing business together. So they still traveled in pairs; and the highway still lay between the deadly parallels—business and politics. The system was indeed bigger than St. Louis; it was the system of Missouri. Of this system Mr. Steffens says further:— This system I have been describing is a form of government; it is the government. We must not be confused by constitutions and charters. The constitution of Missouri describes a governor and his duties, a legislature and the powers lodged in a senate and a house of representatives, etc., etc. This is the paper government. In Missouri this paper government has been superseded by an actual government, and this government is—a lobby, with a combine of legislators, the Democratic State Committee, and State leaders and city bosses for agents. One bribe, two bribes, a hundred bribes, might not be so bad; but what we have seen here is a system of bribery, corruption installed as a motive, the purpose, the spirit of a State government. Thus, at last, is raised in St. Louis and Missouri the plain, great question: Do the people rule? Will they, can they, rule? And the answer of Missouri will be national, almost racial in importance. Reform must begin with the individual, in the heart. The question of national self-government is the question of individual self-government, and reformation which does not reform the individual will not reform the nation. And the true reforming agency, the only one that will do a permanent work, is that agency which reforms the individual, makes him capable of self-government, by giving him a change of heart and breaking the bondage of soul slavery to the passions and lusts of the flesh. Reform by legislation, reform by the ballot-box, does not reform. The corruption, as Mr. Steffens points out, is a system extending beyond politics, beyond the legislature. From such reforms the country has nothing to hope. At the most, they will but touch the surface of things, and the good they accomplish will be but temporary. The evidence of such wide-spread corruption in public and private life as these disclosures by Mr. Steffens afford, shows how great is the need of a true work of reformation at his time, and how great the importance of the reforming message which Seventh-day Adventists are commissioned to bear to the world. The Prospect for Peace
By L. A. S.
Is the present war between Russia and Japan one the result of which will be calculated to bring peace to the world? What the result will be remains, of course, to be seen; but we may consider the question whether any possible outcome of this struggle can tend to a stable equilibrium of international affairs in the Old World. This question is propounded and answered by the well-known English writer, Henry Norman, author of “All the Russias,” in an article contributed to the April World's Work. He finds from an analysis of the situation that the present war must in any event involve the interests of England in such a way, to say nothing of other European powers, that a further and greater war must naturally ensue. Mr. Norman says:— I fear it must be admitted that the view of the English government, and of a majority of the English people, has been that any defeat or humiliation of Russia would be a good thing for England. It is a deplorably short-sighted view. England's interest was never more strongly for peace than in this far Eastern quarrel. Suppose that the first of the three possible courses I have suggested comes to pass. A victorious Russia, determined to consolidate her influence over China once for all, and a Japan in danger of losing even her independence in the future—does anybody suppose that situation would not have involved England in war? Assuredly it would, and other nations, too. Again, take the third possible course. An indecisive war, dragging on from month to month, with Japan financially bleeding to death, with China gradually being dragged in—first as bandits, then as irregulars, then as regulars, and with the acute danger of some Balkan State taking advantage of Russia's preoccupation—would that be a state of things we would contemplate with equanimity, or indeed without interference? Again, surely not. The triumph of Japan over Russia would mark the beginning of a new era in world-affairs. For the first time in modern history an Asiatic race would have conquered a western Christian race—and the victory would be all the more remarkable in that it had chiefly occurred on the sea, the great field of western power. The prestige of the West as against the East would be broken. There is not an Oriental nation that would not feel that a new era had dawned—that the injustice and oppression of ages was not about to be destroyed at last. In every bazaar in India, from end to end of China, in tent and tea-house throughout Central Asia, in Afghanistan, in Siam, in the Philippines, in Arabia, in Egypt, in Turkey, the leaven of unrest, of hope, of the always smoldering enmity to the western man, would seethe and swell. In Asia all native eyes would turn to Japan. Japan's eyes would turn first to China, and with the enormous prestige that the defeat of Russia would have given her, she would mold China to her will. A Chinese civil service, a reformed Chinese government and law and education and finance, would grow under her fostering care and her wise guidance—all excellent. Then would grow, too, first a Chinese army, and then a Chinese navy—still under Japanese control. The western powers would be growing uneasy by this time, and would be protesting and inquiring. But it would not be an inviting task to coerce Japan into ceasing to educate China. “You encouraged me to adopt western ideas,” Japan would say; “why should not China be allowed to make progress also?” And there would be no answer. Then would arise the cry some of us have long foreseen. Then would be the end of western domination in the far East. A Dominion Sunday Law
By Editor
PRESS dispatches from Ottawa, Canada, report that a Lord's day act has been passed by the Dominion Parliament, thus bringing all Canada under a general Sunday law, backed up by the highest civil authority. This Dominion law contains no exemption for observers of the seventh-day Sabbath. If this report be true, which we have no reason to doubt, a much more serious situation has been reached than has existed in that country heretofore. There have been provincial Sunday laws, but up to this time no Sunday legislation by the Dominion Parliament. Recently the Privy Council of England gave a decision setting aside the provincial Sunday laws of Canada on the ground that the regulation of Sunday observance was a matter outside the authority of the provincial legislatures and belonging to the Dominion government only. The Canadian “Lord's Day Alliance,” after years of work, have now secured a Dominion law in the matter, and under it the way is clear for the rigid enforcement of Sunday observance on all classes. This certainly means persecution for observers of the Bible Sabbath. We have not seen the text of this new law, so can not state its provisions at this time; but these will be set before our readers at the earliest opportunity. If Thou Hadst Known!
By Alice Jane Muirhead
“If thou hadst known!” so spake the Saviour Lord
To those who spurned his pure, life-giving word
As o’er Jerusalem his tears were poured—
“If thou hadst known!” “If thou hadst known!” heaven-chosen, favored race,
What meant the lifting on thee of his face,
Thou couldst not have despised such wondrous grace,
“If thou hadst known!” Lord, make us know, “while it is called to-day,”
The things that to our peace belong, and may
We never hear thee, sorrowing o’er us, say,
“If thou hadst known!” Salvation seeking only in thy cross,
May those eternal things our hearts engross,
For which we surely must count all things loss,
Did we but know. Though now at best we know thee but in part,
Yet all we can receive of what thou art,
Do thou reveal to each believing heart,
That we may know. Co-operation Between the School and the Home
By Ellen G. White
The work of the teachers in our schools is a part of the work of the Lord for this time. Church-school teachers must not lightly regard the responsibilities of their work. Their influence is an important factor in the formation of the characters of the children and youth under their care. If they will strive diligently to keep the way of the Lord, they will be a blessing and a help to their pupils, aiding them to form characters that will stand in the day of judgment. The character of the work done in our church-schools should be of the very highest order. Great care should be shown in selecting teachers. Wise men, who can discern character, should make the selection; for the very best talent is needed to educate and mold the minds of the children and youth, and to carry on successfully the many kinds of work that will need to be done by the teachers in our church-schools. No one of an inferior or narrow cast of mind should ever be placed in charge of one of these schools. Do not place over the children young and inexperienced teachers, who have no managing ability; for their efforts will tend to disorganization, and every school should in this respect be a model of heaven. The teachers chosen should have the true missionary spirit; for the children placed in their charge are to be trained to become missionaries. The teachers are to learn constantly in the school of Christ. Unless they have learned to obey God’s requirements, how can they teach their pupils to obey? Unless they have learned to be patient, they are not prepared to meet the many trials and annoyances of the schoolroom. In their work our church-school teachers will find many perplexities. They will have to contend against the prejudices of parents who have incorrect ideas of the characters which their children should form; for there are many parents who, though professing to believe the Bible, fail of bringing its principles into the home life. But if the teachers are constant learners in the school of Christ, these circumstances will never conquer them. The teachers should not be left to carry alone the burden of their work. They need the sympathy, the kindness, the co-operation, and the love of every church-member. But there are church-members who have been quick to catch up unkind suppositions, and to speak disparagingly of the teacher before other church-members, and even in the presence of the children. Some have talked freely and bitterly concerning a teacher, though not clearly understanding the difficulty of which they were speaking. This should not be. Let the one who thinks that a teacher has done wrong, follow the directions that Christ has given. He says, “If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” Until you have done this, you are not justified in telling others of your brother’s mistakes. Let the church-members in places where schools are established, keep their own souls in the love of God, lest they become channels through which Satan will communicate evil surmisings and false accusations. Let all rally to the support of the teacher. A spirit of disunion, cherished by a few, will communicate itself to others, and will undo the influence for good that might otherwise be exerted by the school. Let church-members close the windows of the heart against the poisonous malaria of complaint and fault-finding, and open them heavenward to the healing rays of Christ’s righteousness. The Parents’ Responsibility
We are not to concern ourselves so much about the course that others are following, as about the course that we ourselves are following. If the children attending a church-school do not improve in manners, the parents should not unduly blame the teacher. They should, rather, closely examine themselves, to see if in the home they are such teachers as God can approve. In many cases the children are greatly neglected in the home, and are more disorderly there than they are in the school. If children who for years have been neglected in the home are not led by the teacher to live Christian lives, shall the parents, because of this, set in circulation unkind criticisms regarding the teacher? Let them rather blame themselves for their own neglect. Parents have a very important part to act in making the school a success. When they faithfully act their part in the home, the work of the teacher will be greatly lightened. His courage and hope will be increased. But by a failure to govern their households, parents make the work of the teacher hard and discouraging. Parents whose hearts are filled with the love of Christ will refrain from finding fault, and will do all in their power to encourage and help the one whom they have chosen as a teacher for their children. They will be willing to believe that he is just as conscientious in his work as they are in theirs. They will encourage him by showing him that they appreciate his efforts. They will not say nor do anything that will foster insubordination in their children. I am instructed to say to parents, Raise the standard of behavior in your own homes. Teach your children to obey. Rule them by the combined influence of affection and Christlike authority. Let your lives be such that of you may be spoken the words of commendation spoken of Cornelius, of whom it is said that he “feared God with all his house.” A reformation is needed among our children. Let there be co-operation between parents and teachers. Let a righteous influence be exerted in the home and in the school. Parents need to take an advance step. Let them remember that everything which brings discord is the work of the enemy of souls. Let them carefully refrain from criticizing the teacher, and begin to do practical missionary work in their own homes. Parents, shall your children be lost because of your lack of faithfulness? Neither you nor they will prosper in any other path than the path of obedience. If you have failed in your duty to your family, confess your sins before God. Gather your children about you, and acknowledge your neglect. Tell them that you desire to bring about a reformation in the home, and ask them to help you to make the home what it ought to be. Read to them the directions found in the Word of God. Pray with them; and ask God to spare their lives, and to help them to prepare for a home in his kingdom. Thus you may begin and continue a work of true reform. Be pleasant in the home. Restrain every word that would arouse unholy temper. “Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath,” is a divine injunction. Remember that your children are young in years and experience. In controlling and disciplining them, be firm, but kind. Encourage them to do their duty as members of the family firm. Express your appreciation of the efforts they put forth to conquer their inclinations to wrong. Let the Word of God be your rule, and9 ever keep in mind the responsibilities for which in the great day of judgment you must give account. Of the patriarch Abraham, the Omniscient One said, “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.” Abraham’s household comprised more than a thousand souls. Those who were led by his teachings to worship the true God found a home in his encampment; and here, as in a school, they received such instruction as would prepare them to be representatives of the truth. Abraham’s affection for his children and his household led him to guard their religious faith, to impart to them a knowledge of the divine statutes, as the most precious legacy he could transmit to them, and through them to the world. All were taught that they were under the rule of the God of heaven. There was to be no oppression on the part of parents, and no disobedience on the part of children. God’s law had appointed to each his duties; and only in obedience could any secure happiness and prosperity. His own example, the silent influence of his daily life, was a constant lesson. The unswerving integrity, the benevolence, and unselfish courtesy which had won the admiration of kings, were displayed in the home. There was a fragrance about the life, a nobility and loveliness of character, which revealed to all that he was connected with heaven. He did not neglect the soul of the humblest servant. In his household there was not one law for the master, and one for the servant; a royal way for the rich, and another for the poor. All were treated with justice and compassion, as inheritors with him of the grace of life. He “will command his household.” There would be no sinful neglect to restrain the evil propensities of his children, no weak, unwise, indulgent favoritism, no yielding of his conviction of duty to the claims of mistaken affection. Abraham would not only give right instruction, but he would maintain the authority of just and righteous laws. How few there are in our day who follow this example. On the part of too many parents there is a blind and selfish sentimentalism, which is manifested in leaving children, with their unformed judgment and undisciplined passions, to the control of their own will. This is the worst cruelty to the youth, and a great wrong to the world. Parental indulgence causes disorder in families and in society. It confirms in the young a desire to follow inclination, instead of submitting to the divine requirements. Thus they grow up with hearts averse to doing God’s will, and they transmit their irreligious, insubordinate spirit to their children, and their children’s children. Like Abraham, parents should command their households after them. Let obedience to parental authority be taught and enforced as the first step in obedience to the authority of God. The Lord is our Creator, and we are his children, subject to his rule. God’s method of government is an example of how parents are to train their children. There is no oppression in the Lord’s service, and there is to be no oppression in the home. Parents and guardians are to treat those under their care even as God treats his earthly children, with kindness and love. In the home and in the school there is to be strict and faithful discipline. Neither parents nor teacher are to allow disregard of their authority to go unnoticed. They are to make immediate efforts to lead the offender into right paths. Should they neglect to correct the children when they do wrong, God would hold them accountable for the results of their neglect. But let them be sparing of censure. Let kindness be the law of the home and of the school. Let children be taught to keep the law of the Lord, and let a firm, loving influence restrain them from evil. Parents, humble your own hearts before God. Begin a thorough work with your children. Plead with the Lord to forgive your disregard of his work in neglecting to train your children in the way they should go. Ask for light and guidance, for a tender conscience, and for clear discernment, that you may see your mistakes and failures. God will hear such prayers. The world is watching, and it will take notice of every defect in the lives of Christ’s followers. Let our words and acts be such that our lives shall not dishonor the Master. May God help fathers and mothers to purify their souls, that they may stand before him and before the world as those who are keeping the way of the Lord. Dwellers Upon the Earth
By R. Hare
“In the world, but not of the world,” must at all times illustrate the position of God’s people on this earth, but especially so in these last days. Subject indeed to the environments of life they must be, but not subject to the soul-absorbing worldliness that makes men dwellers upon the earth. God designs that the solemn warning of Christ’s second coming, and the hope of his glorious appearing, will exercise an elevating power that can lift the soul above the atmosphere of worldly gain or loss. God beholds but two classes in the world to-day,—the dwellers upon the earth, and those who seek a better country. Of Abraham it is said that he sojourned as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles, “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Heb. 11:10. Lot was satisfied with the goodly land, and “pitched his tent toward Sodom.” He soon became acquainted with the Sodomites, and took up his dwelling in their unholy city. The result of that contaminating citizenship can only be told in the dark record of a blighted life. The two daughters that did escape with their father brought with them the impurity of Sodom. They each committed a shameful crime, and as a result two nations came into existence that God had to destroy with the sword of vengeance. There were two classes in the days of Abraham, and there are but two classes now. Paul, in writing of these two classes to the Philippians, says of one, “Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who the things on the earth are minding.” But the other class he places in direct contrast: “For our citizenship is in the heavens, from whence also the Saviour we await.” Phil. 3:19, 20.—Young’s Translation. “Our citizenship is in heaven.” Blessed thought for the tired and weary toiler. Blessed assurance for the unknown stranger that has no resting-place here, and thrice blessed prospect for all who look for a coming Saviour. The inheritance, “undefiled, and that fadeth not away,” is still reserved in heaven. Peter speaks of our sojourning below “in fear.” 1 Peter 1:17. And we are admonished as “strangers and pilgrims” to abstain from fleshly lusts. 1 Peter 2:11. The necessity is thus presented of disconnecting from the absorbing interests that hold so many as captive dwellers upon the earth. Christ said, “Where your treasure is, there will the heart be also.” Luke 12:34. How important, then, that we have our treasure above; and if this be the case, its glory will eclipse all earthly possessions. Yes; it will do more; that treasure in heaven will give us a right in the better country. It is only those who have their minds liberated from the blinding enchantments of earthly things who will be able to comprehend the solemn warnings of the approaching end. In presenting the signs of his coming to the disciples, Christ said to them, “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.” Luke 21:34, 35. This does not include those who are prepared for the Lord’s coming. Of them we read, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” 1 Thess. 5:4. The “surfeiting, drunkenness, and cares of this life” distinguish the class—the great majority—taken up with these things, and it is upon them that the second coming of Christ comes as a snare and a thief. Those who dwell upon the earth will also “worship the beast.” This will include all whose names are not written in the book of life. Rev. 13:8. Having made the world their portion, they will obey the mandates of earthly governments sooner than incur loss or disadvantage. Those who seek for a better country will worship “him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Rev. 14:7.10 How intently the human mind has been fixed on dwelling below, even while God has been trying to lift it to the contemplation of a more enduring heritage. “Arise ye,” and depart; for this is not your rest,” is the thrice repeated message that still echoes in solemn warning over the costly palaces where the earthly dwellers would forever abide. Infinite love points to the gathering storm so soon to burst over a doomed and helpless world, and in pleading tones whispers again, “This is not your rest.” Micah 2:10. In that coming destruction the glory of man is to be humbled. The gorgeous palaces, which men have called after their own names, will fall, and mingle their beauties with the clods of the valleys. The earth dwellers will then call upon the rocks and the mountains to hide them from the presence of the Lamb. Rev. 6:15-17. But the righteous will look up and say, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him” (Isa. 25:9); and as they stand amid the crumbling monuments of earthly glory, it will only be as though taking farewell of tabernacles in which they have pitched for the night. Ascending with their Lord, they will find that better country where their citizenship and treasure have been so long. BEWARE of what you think; for what you think, quite as much as what you do, molds your character. Wrong acts persisted in will wreck any life, but wrong thoughts have just as sure an effect. It not infrequently happens that people who live fairly good lives, so far as their actions go, do not feel it necessary to set close a guard on their thoughts. These are hidden, and of what harm is it occasionally to cherish a vulgar thought, if one does not allow it to escape in action? Of what harm to hate, if one does not show it? To imagine one's self committing wrong acts, if one does not actually commit them? But the laws of life say that every thought affects the whole being. “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Evil thoughts gradually undermine the character, and some day these thoughts will burst into action which is irremediable. Therefore, look to your thoughts. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Keep your mind swept and garnished. And more than that, make the furniture of it beautiful and true; for if bad thoughts persisted in ruin a character, so the best of characteristics may be cultivated by keeping the mind constantly on good things. Very often one is called on to act in an emergency, and then one acts along the line of one's previous thought. No act is spontaneous; the seeds of it have been for a long time taking root in the brain. Of two men who have lived practically the same lives outwardly, and are suddenly called on to face a danger, one may play the coward, and the other rise to heroic effort. The result is no matter of chance. Little by little the motor-tracts of the brain of one have been weakened by wrong thinking; little by little the brain of the other has been strengthened because he thought bravely. When the strain comes, one unconsciously acts along the line of least resistance. It is then that the hidden thoughts tell. We should see to it that we think heroically, think purely, think charitably. Then in action we shall find ourselves doing the brave thing; we shall act cleanly and sanely; we shall be kind and helpful.—Woman's Home Companion. WE are living in an age of unbelief, and religious leaders, in many cases, strengthen the unbelief. When they are asked how the Bible can be reconciled with the theory of evolution, it is noticeable that they begin to explain away the Bible, not the theory of evolution. It is not to be wondered at that an inquirer writes thus to a religious paper:— “I am a sincere Christian, and want to remain one. But my doubts are becoming numerous, and to me terrible. Reading apologies for the Christian religion seems to intensify and not to quiet these misgivings.” The first point, for those who have doubts, is to be sure that one is making a right use of that truth which he does believe. Truth is not given to us to be a mental plaything. God's truth is life, and it demands expression in the life. If it is kept unused, it will become corrupt, and then the holder has doubt, not truth. If the truth is lived, it will bring more truth. “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.” John 7:17. Most men have all the truth they are willing to make use of. If a man eats good food, but does not exert his strength, he becomes a dyspeptic. The good food becomes fermented and poisonous in his body. The remedy is work. Here is a lesson for spiritual dyspeptics. If they will go to work, they will cease to find doubt and poison in the truth which nourishes others. Instead of being unable to assimilate truth, they will demand more, and thrive on it. So, if you are troubled with unbelief, leave both truth and doubt alone for a time, find out what little you do believe, and then ask yourself if you are living up to that little. It may be only a belief in simple honesty and kindness. Whatever it is, carry it out in your life completely. Further developments may be left to look after themselves. You will soon find out that any fault is not in truth but in yourself, and having learned how weak and untrustworthy you yourself are, you will be glad of a truth that will help you to more life of the right kind. The reason why this is an age of unbelief is because there is so little honest obedience to truth. Men naturally want to get rid of that which condemns them, and unbelief is their flimsy excuse for their own weakness. How much better to confess that the fault is in self, and believe on him that justifieth the ungodly. Rom. 4: 5.—Present Truth.