NOTE.—We wish those who ask questions to take particular notice: (1) Only such questions will be answered here as we believe to be of general interest and information. (2) We can not undertake to explain from four to a dozen scriptures, as in one sentence we are often requested to do. (3) Do not ask to "explain" a certain text or passage. State clearly the point in question. (4) Give full name and address, not for publication unless desired, but as evidence of good faith, and to give us the privilege of replying by letter if deemed best. (5) Unsigned communications of any kind find the quickest way to the waste-basket. (6) It is always well to inclose stamp. (7) "Foolish and unlearned questions avoid," also those that minister to mere curiosity. (8) Study the Scriptures yourselves.
Reverend
By Editor
No. 540. “Reverend.”
FROM what or whence is the word “reverend” derived, and what was its original signification? R. G. W. C.
“Reverend” comes from the word “revere,” to venerate, regard with awe, stand in fear of. It comes from the Latin “revereor,” to stand in awe of. The word is akin to worship, but its common use has been shaded down to mean respect. It was probably first applied to aged and venerable ministers, and from that it came to be applied to all ministers. The word “reverend” occurs but once in our English Bible, and is there applied to the name of the Lord (Ps. 111:9); but the original Hebrew word, yare, occurs many times. It is translated “reverence” in Lev. 19:30; 26:2; Ps. 89:7, where it is applied to the sanctuary and to God; and in Gen. 20:8; 28:17; 43:18; Ex. 34:30; Num. 22:3; Deut. 2:4; Joshua 9:24, and many other places, it is translated “afraid”—having reference to both God and man. The words in the New Testament rendered “reverence” are three in number, of kindred meaning, but weaker.
Will you harmonize these texts: Gen. 6:6; Acts 15:18? Could God repent of works he knew would be?
God speaks to men in the language of men. Every good emotion in the human heart is in the heart of God in its perfection. God gave man only that which was good and which would have worked out for man's everlasting good if man used it aright. But man did not; many would not; and all this God knew; and yet he gave them his perfect plan, knowing it would eternally triumph, with all those who desired to triumph in the right way, while those who did not count themselves worthy of everlasting life would perish. Notwithstanding this, when God saw how man opposed his own soul's best interest and turned of his own choice to destruction, it repented him, it gave him sorrow of heart, that he had made them. His pity and compassion were moved for them. See Judges 10 : 16.
PLEASE explain 1 Cor. 15:50. What kind of a body is the resurrection body? Did not Christ go to heaven flesh and blood? Was not Elijah translated flesh and blood?
"Flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God," that is, God's immortal kingdom, for the reason that "neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." The corruption of natural man is in the natural life, and "the life of the flesh is in the blood." Lev. 17:11. The blood is therefore corrupted, making a true basis for the statement so often heard, "The blood must be purified," a work which no man can do. The resurrection body is "a spiritual body." 1 Cor. 15:44. The Spirit of God flows in the immortal man in the place of blood, and his whole being is changed to incorruption. Our Saviour had "a spiritual body" at his ascension, with the immortal flesh, filled with the life of God. Elijah must have been changed in this way also. The stamp of immortality upon the physical man is God's stamp of genuineness on man's incorruptible character.
Sanctuary and Church
By Editor
No. 543. Sanctuary and Church.
Is the "sanctuary" ever referred to in the Bible as a church house?
The word "sanctuary" is applied in almost every instance of its use in the Scriptures to either the tabernacle built by Moses in the wilderness, the temple built by Solomon, or the heavenly temple of which these were types. The word means a hallowed thing or place, a dwelling-place of God. The original word in Amos 7:13 is translated "chapel." The word could properly be used of a church truly dedicated to God, a place where God dwells. It could be used of the Christian's body, the temple of God. But the Biblical use of the term is almost universally as given above.
WILL you please explain 1 Tim. 4: 3, the whole verse?
We can give no lengthy explanation. Read and consider the context. 1 Tim. 4: 1-3 refers to a class which would in the latter times depart from faith in Christ; they would give heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons, teaching contrary to God's Word; they would be hypocritical, teaching falsehood, while pretending to teach the truth; by thus working against the truth their conscience would become hardened; they would forbid marriage, when perfectly lawful; they would command abstinence from legitimate foods, or appoint and command stated fasts, etc. These are the characteristics of a great apostasy in the last days. In many of these features we may see its fulfilment in the saint-worship and intercession of the Catholic Church, and the stated fasts and celibacy of clergy and nuns commanded by the same church. It may also be seen in Spiritualism, and will be more and more manifest as we near our Lord's coming.
N. H. Z
No. 545. Before or after Supper.
WHY is the ordinance of humility (feet washing) held before the Lord's supper, when Jesus did this after supper?
N. H. Z
The supper referred to in John 13:2, 4 is not the Lord's supper, but the Passover supper, which preceded the institution of the Lord's supper. The feet washing came in between verses 18 and 19 of Luke 22. We have not space to explain in detail. For full explanation send for "Rejected Ordinance," by W. H. Littlejohn, Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Mich. Price, 10 cents.
The passage is plain. How could it be made plainer? Have you prayerfully considered each expression? If not, do it. From the standpoint of this sinful world every statement is true; and from the standpoint of the Christian it may be true. There is a time to kill, or mortify, or make to die, the deeds of the body, to break down by faith the strongholds of sin, to hate the evil, etc. What more is needed?
Being with Christ
By Editor
No. 547. Being with Christ.
PLEASE explain Phil. 1:23 and 2 Cor. 5:8. It would seem as tho Paul meant he would be with Christ when he died.
Phil. 1:23: "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better."
2 Cor. 5:8: "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."
Paul was in a strait betwixt two things, life and death. "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. . . . Yet what I shall choose I wot not." Phil. 1:21, 22. Death or life, either, would magnify Christ; but the apostle knew not which to choose of these; but he did desire a third thing, which was "far better" than the other two, and that was "to be with Christ." Therefore to be with Christ is not death.
The same thought is expressed in 2 Cor. 5:8. The thing he desired there was not to be "unclothed" or to die (verse 4), or to remain here in the body, this present mortal existence, and suffer (verses 2, 8), but to be out of both of these conditions, and be "present with the Lord."
Now when are the people of God present with him?—In a sense, of course, Christ is always present with his people by his Spirit, but they are not present with him personally until he comes. Then when he changes the mortal to immortal; when "mortality" is "swallowed up of life" (2 Cor. 5:4); when the dead in Christ shall rise incorruptible, and the living shall be changed (1 Cor. 15:51-54); when he shall descend from heaven with a shout (1 Thess. 4:16); when he shall reward every man according to his works (Matt. 16:27), in this way, at this time, "so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:17). It was this for which Paul longed, when Christ should come from heaven, and he would leave the earth, caught up to meet him in the air.
THE SUFFERING IN INDIA, AND AN ALLEGED CAUSE.
THE discussion in Congress of a resolution to charter a vessel to carry relief to the famine sufferers of India, brought out some startling facts as to the extent of the calamity, and some pertinent statements as to a fundamental cause. In course of remarks, Mr. Grout, of Vermont, said:—
“The viceroy of India, in his report for the second week in March, states that there are upon the official relief lists 3,421,000 people. . . . The extent and severity of that famine is but poorly understood. Lord George Hamilton, the secretary of state for India, says it covers an area of 160,000 square miles, including 36,000,000 people; and that in addition to this there is a region where scarcity prevails of 121,000 square miles, with a population of 44,000,000. In the nature of things there can be no complete relief until the crop is harvested next autumn, and Sir Edwin Arnold says that the deaths in consequence of the famine before that time, will be likely to be counted by the hundred thousand, and perhaps by ten million. He states the fact that in the last famine in India, which is a hot and dry country, nearly 6,000,000 people died of starvation. When the drought comes there, as in the past year, it destroys vegetation over large tracts of the country, and the population is left unprovided for; and, being dense, millions of deaths follow. The area now afflicted is much larger than then, the population much greater, and the situation in every way much worse.”
Mr. Grout further stated that, while this condition exists in India, corn in our own country costs but eight or ten cents a bushel, and in some parts of the west is being burned for fuel. Mr. Barrows, of Massachusetts, then said:—
“There is one aspect of this question that has not been presented, and that is the fact that a large number of the people who are now in a starving condition stand in a very close relation to the people of the United States. They are, so to speak, the wards of the American missionaries, and the appeal which comes to this country, comes through the representatives of nearly all the American missionary boards of the different denominations, so that those who are in this starving condition, turn naturally to the American people with the expectation of relief.”
The manner in which large numbers of people become the victims of starvation in case of a single year’s drought, was pointedly expressed by Mr. Simpson, of Kansas, as follows:—
“Mr. Speaker, I shall vote for this joint resolution; I am in favor of it. I do not think we ought to cavil about the amount. I am satisfied that the officials of the government in whose charge this will be left, will see to it that the people are not wronged in any way. And yet, sir, I agree with the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. McMillan], that, while we are charitable in donating to the suffering poor of other countries, we ought to point out in some way the reasons why they came to be poor. The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Cannon] alluded, a while ago, to the donation that we made to Ireland in years gone by. He stated truly that at that time there were thousands of the Irish people starving on the public highways; and yet it is a historical fact that every ship that left an Irish port at that time for England, went over there loaded with the products of the Irish people, paid as a tribute to absentee landlords. Now, how comes it that the great mass of the people of India, who are industrious and frugal, and who produce from year to year an abundance to keep them all, find themselves, in a year of drought or scarcity, on the very verge of starvation? Must it not be that somehow, or in some way, the powers that govern India, through a system of taxation or otherwise, manage to absorb the wealth that those people create? So I say, sir, it is right and proper that, while we are generous in our contributions for the relief of suffering, we should point out the evils that make those people poor and suffering. . . . Ireland was a rich and prosperous country until the system of landlordism absorbed the wealth of the Irish people, and the same system is now eating out the vitals of India, and it is doing the same thing in this country. We are to-day traveling the same road, and it will be but a very short time until we in this country will be appealing to other countries to save our starving people, under the same laws and the same conditions.”
DAYLIGHT VERSUS ARTIFICIAL LIGHT.
By Julia H. Duffie
PERHAPS this caption might quite properly be rendered “God’s light versus man’s light;” for among the many inventions which men have sought out they have found it expedient to devise various methods of producing artificial light. Neither could the multitudinous operations of the business and social world be successfully carried on without large recourse being had to this convenient substitute for that wonderful element which the Creator in the beginning spoke into existence and pronounced good.
Nevertheless we country people (and perhaps many others), who are to quite an extent disconnected from the busy machinery of the world, have, it seems to me, the privilege of living more in harmony with the original plan when man was created upright. Not that one may make rules for another according to that which may have proved practical and satisfactory to himself; for each one is constituted and situated differently from others, and can only adopt the suggestions of others as far as he finds them available.
Daylight is certainly that to which the human eye is naturally adapted; then would it not be consistent to use that when practicable, and to avoid the use of the substitute as far as duty and circumstances would permit?
In this latitude during the summer months the day dawns very early. In fair weather at four o’clock A.M., sometimes earlier, it is light enough for ordinary labor to be performed, tho it is preferable that this be of a nature not to strain the eyes, as the oculist tells us that the eye must not be taxed before breakfast. However, I can not think that if one is properly seated, allowing the strongest light to fall upon10the work instead of the face, even sewing or studying before breakfast is as injurious to the eyes and nerves as using them for the same purposes by artificial light.
A cup of water as hot as can be comfortably drank upon rising will affect the eyes much the same as eating.
As for myself, I seldom find it possible to eat much breakfast very soon after rising, consequently before dinner time must eat “to keep up,” but when rising early and taking two hours’ brisk exercise before eating, I find myself in condition to enjoy a hearty breakfast, which does not produce the stupor which a very light one does earlier, and which satisfies until dinner time.
During the hot weather, those who do their hardest work in the cool of morning thereby secure the privilege of seeking a cool corner for light work or resting, if necessary, during the less comfortable part of the day.
There is something so cheering and invigorating in the morning air, “while yet the birds their early matins sing,” that it seems one can hardly afford to miss it. On the other hand late working at night is to most people very exhausting because very unnatural. It is true that nature accommodates herself remarkably to abnormal conditions in this respect, as in many others, yet those who are permitted to live nearest her laws, will in the end have attained the truest success. Reading or sewing by twilight is very injurious to the eyes, hence if such work must be done after clear daylight is gone, artificial light should be employed.
More rest and sleep are required in cold weather than in warmer, hence provision is made for it.
In those portions of the earth where the days and nights are of great length, the effects of these less fortunate conditions are plainly discernible upon the inhabitants, tho undoubtedly less disastrous to those born under those conditions than they would be to others.
In this favored latitude, in ordinary households, it is seldom necessary to use artificial light during the warm season. When daylight is gone, and the birds and lambs have gone to bed, let Johnny and Susie follow their example. This is the mother’s sacred hour; when the little eyes see nothing to distract the attention, and the little hands and feet are willingly quiet, then the mother talks are gladly listened to, and upon the tones the little minds drift innocently away to slumber-land. Mother Nature will usually attend to their awakening in the morning, when her work of restoring is fully accomplished.
JULIA H. DUFFIE.
The War Spirit—A Difference.
By Editor
While many of our religious papers and teachers and people are shouting war and training young men in the art, infusing into them the war spirit, by processions, gay uniforms, brass bands, and “patriotic” nonsense, contrary to the teachings of the Prince of Peace, it is refreshing to read what some of the grizzled old war veterans have had to say. Sherman, we believe it was, that said, “War is hell.” Old Gen. W. S. Rosecrans recently telegraphed to the New York World:—
“Not to speak of the loss of millions of lives, war has cost more waste of treasure, raiment, and food than would suffice to relieve all the poverty and starvation existing in the entire world to-day. Brought up a soldier, and having passed my best years as a student of the art of war, and having seen at close range the horrors and ruin of war, I hail as the rainbow of promise the noble inspiration of arbitration in place of war.
“Hampered by illness and age, I can do little, but were I able I would devote pen and voice to inculcating in the minds of our youth in the schools and universities a realization of the horrors of war, and impress the great uplifting of humanity above mere brute force to the higher plane of a nobler civilization, which shall calmly settle all vexing international differences by a court of reason and not by the crash of artillery.”
Commander-in-chief Miles and Gen. O. O. Howard utter the same sentiments. These men know the cruelty and heartlessness of war by experience. Our religious people generally know nothing of this; do they advocate war because its spirit burns in their hearts? Christ has called us unto peace.
Politics and Religion.
In 1891 the Methodist Conference held in Des Moines, Iowa, censured the governor of that State because certain laws were not more stringently executed. In a subsequent speech the governor alluded to this censure, and in course of his remarks uttered this sentiment, which seems more and more like a true prophecy as time passes:
“I think I can safely say that, so far as worldly people are concerned, they do not believe that our politics and religion can be mixed without converting the entire mixture into politics alone in a very short time. I want to say farther that those who attempt to do this will sooner or later learn that their churches have become political instead of religious organizations, and that they must thereafter be content to wield such influences over the consciences of men as other political organizations are able to do, and no greater or better.”
WHAT IS LOVE?
For others' sake to longer wear
The garment old that they more bare
May feel the warmth of robe you give
And have a braver heart to live,
Nor show that you yourself deny
By any half regretful sigh—
Herein is love.
For others' sake to hush your moan
And speak in gentle, cheerful tone;
For others' sake to walk each day,
And keep unspoken all your fears;
For others' sake to be quite strong
When sore beset by foe and wrong—
Herein is love.
For others' sake to seek to bear
The heaviest part of all life's care;
Nor show that weary ache and strain
Is falling on your heart and brain;
But in it all to seem at rest,
And not as standing any test—
Herein is love.
For others' sake to make life sweet,
Though thorns may pierce into your feet;
For others' sake to walk each day,
As if joy helped you all the way—
While in your heart may be a grave
That makes it hard to be so brave—
Herein is love.
For others' sake—this brought to earth
The benediction of His birth;
For others' sake to suffer all
That into human life can fall;
For others flowed the crimson tide,
For others He was crucified—
Herein is love.
—Selected.
WHY BIRDS GO TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS.
THE number of birds which go to the Arctic regions to breed is "vast beyond conception." They go not by thousands, but by millions, to rear their young on the tundra. The cause which attracts them is the fact that nowhere in the world does nature provide, at the same time and in the same place, "such a lavish prodigality of food." That the barren swamp of the tundra should yield a food supply so great as to tempt birds to make journeys of thousands of miles to rear their young in a land of plenty, only to be found beyond the Arctic Circle, seems incredible. The vegetation largely consists of cranberry, cloudberry, and crowberry bushes. Forced by the perpetual sunshine of the Arctic summer, these bear enormous crops of fruit. But the crop is not ripe until the middle and end of the Arctic summer, and if the fruit-eating birds had to wait until it was ripe, they would starve, for they arrive on the very day of the melting of the snow. But each year the snow descends on this immense crop of ripe food before the birds have time to gather it. It is then preserved beneath the snow, perfectly fresh and pure, and the melting of the snow discloses the bushes with the unconsumed last year's crop hanging on them, or lying, ready to be eaten, on the ground. The frozen meal stretches across the breadth of Asia. It never decays, and is accessible the moment the snow melts. Ages have taught the birds that they have only to fly to the Arctic Circle to find such a store of "crystallized foods" as will last them till the bushes are once more forced into bearing by the perpetual sunlight. The same heats which free the fruits bring into being the most prolific insect life in the world; the mosquito swarms on the tundra—no European can live there without a veil after the snow melts; the gun barrels are black with them, and the cloud often obscures the sight. Thus the insect-eating birds have only to open their mouths to fill them with mosquitoes, and the presence of swarms of tender little warblers, cliff-chaffs, pipits, and wagtails in this Arctic region is accounted for.—Selected.
HOW THE CHINOOK COMES.
The Warm Wind of the Northwest.
PICTURE to yourself a wild waste of snow, wind beaten and blizzard furrowed, until the vast expanse resembles a billowy white sea. The frigid air blowing half a gale, is filled with needle-like snow and ice crystals, which sting the flesh like the bites of poisonous insects and sift through the finest crevices. The sun, low down in the southern horizon, looks like a frozen globe, with halves, crescents, and bright prismatic bars encircling it.
Great herds of range cattle, which roam at will, and thrive on the nutritious grasses indigenous to the northern slope, wander aimlessly here and there, or more frequently drift with the wind in vain attempts to find food and shelter; moaning in distress from cold and hunger, their noses hung with bloody icicles, their legs galled and bleeding from breaking the hard snow crust as they travel—they appeal to the hardest heart for pity. It is sure death for human beings to be caught out in one of these awful blizzards, with the temperature down to thirty or fifty degrees below zero, unless rescue is speedy. Yet, such conditions frequently exist in this latitude, as they did for fifteen days in November, 1896, when it seemed as if the elements had conspired to bring about another ice age, and annihilate every living thing.
Would the "chinook" never come? The wind veered and backed, now howling as if in derision, and anon becoming calm, as if in contemplation of the desolation on the face of nature, while the poor dumb animals continued their ceaseless tramp, crying with pain and starvation. At last, on December 1, at about the hour of sunset, there was a change which experienced plainsmen interpreted as favorable to the coming of the warm southwest wind. At sunset the temperature was only thirteen degrees, the air scarcely in motion, but occasionally seeming to descend from overhead. Over the mountains in the southwest a great bank of black clouds hung, dark and awesome, whose wide expanse was unbroken by line or break; only at the upper edge, the curled and serrated cloud, blown into tatters by wind, was seen to be the advance courier of the long-prayed-for "chinook." How eagerly we watched its approach! How we strained sight and hearing for the first welcome evidence of the gentle breath! But it was not until 11:35 P. M. that the first influence was felt. First, a puff of heat, summer-like in comparison with what had existed for two weeks, and we run to our instrument shelter to observe the temperature. Up goes the mercury, thirty-four degrees in seven minutes. Now the wind has come with a twenty-five mile velocity. Now the cattle stop traveling, and with muzzles turned toward the wind, low with satisfaction. Weary with two weeks' standing on their feet, they lie down in the snow, for they know that their salvation has come, that now their bodies will not freeze to the ground.
The wind increases in strength and warmth; it blows now in one steady roar; the temperature has risen to thirty-eight degrees; the great expanse of snow, thirty inches deep on a level, is becoming damp and honeycombed by the hot wind, and we retire satisfied that the "chinook" is a genuine and lasting one.
Twelve hours afterwards there are bare, brown hills everywhere; the plains are covered with floods of water. In a few days the wind will evaporate the moisture, and the roads will be dry and hard. Were it not for the "chinook" winds the northern slope country would not be habitable, nor could domestic animals survive the winters.—From the United States Weather Bureau.
A WOMAN'S HOUR.
"PLEASE state to the court exactly what you did between 8 and 9 o'clock on Wednesday morning," said a lawyer to a delicate-looking little woman on the witness stand.
"Well," she said, after a moment's reflection, "I washed my two children and got them ready for school, and sewed a button on Johnny's coat, and mended a rent in Nellie's dress. Then I tidied up my sitting room and watered my house plants and glanced over the morning paper. Then I dusted my parlor and set things to rights in it, and washed some lamp chimneys and combed my baby's hair and sewed a button on one of her little shoes, and then I swept out my front entry, and brushed and put away the children's Sunday clothes, and wrote a note to Johnny's teacher, asking her to excuse him for not being at school on Friday. Then I fed my canary bird, and gave the grocery man an order, and swept off the back porch, and then I sat down and rested a few minutes before the clock struck 9. That's all."
"All," said the dazed lawyer. "Excuse me, judge, I must get my breath before I call the next witness."—Selected.
OUR ALARM CLOCK.
Not many years ago a student, desiring to rise early in the morning, bought an alarm clock. For a few days it worked well. But one morning, after being aroused by its alarm, he turned over and went to sleep again. On the subsequent mornings the clock failed to wake him. He placed it under the head of his bed, in close proximity to his ear. There it woke him till the time he disobeyed its summons; ever afterward it was a failure—he slept through its call with perfect regularity. Yet, on the other hand, many a mother wakes on the faintest voice of her child, and many a watcher on the slightest movement of his patient. They have trained themselves to heed such calls.
In like manner the conscience may be deadened and trained. Let the Christian disregard its voice, and soon it will become unable to arouse him at all. Let him carefully heed its faintest remonstrance, and it will become to him a most valuable mentor. Take good care of your conscience; it is a most delicate apparatus.—Selected.
Do Not Fear the World
"Do NOT fear the power of the world. When a blind man runs against you in the street, you are not angry with him. You say that he is blind, poor man! or he would not have hurt you. So you may say of the world when they speak evil of you for Christ's sake. They are blind."
No Sacrifice of Truth
By Wendell Phillips
How MUCH truth may I sacrifice in order to save some little Zoar in which God has given me being? How much silencing of the truth is permitted us here by God, in order that we may help him govern the world? NONE!— Wendell Phillips.
Daring to Stand for Truth
By James Russell Lowell
They are slaves who dare not choose
Hatred, scoffing and abuse
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think.
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.
—Lowell.
NEW DEPARTURE IN THE ABYSSINIAN CHURCH.
By Prof. George H. Schodde, Ph.D.
BY PROF. GEORGE H. SCHODDE, PH.D.
RECENT events indicate that the Abyssinians, the oldest organized national church and Christian people on the globe, have decided to change their policy of isolation and separation and seek to come into touch again with other Christian communions.
The movement in this direction has proceeded from both the Abyssinian State and Church governments, as also from the representatives of the two great Catholic Churches, the Greek and the Latin, who have, each in their own way and manner, sought to come to an understanding with the dignitaries of the Abyssinian Church, and to bring about a modus vivendi with this venerable tho degenerate relic of ancient Oriental churchdom. The most recent effort of this kind has been the effort of the pope to secure the release of the Italian prisoners of war. It may be doubtful whether this move was prompted by ecclesiastical or patriotic considerations; certain it is that the ultimate purposes were to see if it were possible again to prepare the way for a Roman Catholic propaganda among the Abyssinian Christians.
The Vatican has pleasant memories in this respect, as there was a period in the sixteenth century when the Jesuits actually succeeded in establishing the papal authority in Abyssinia and of maintaining this supremacy for some years, largely after the manner of the old Jesuit States in South Africa. Only a phenomenal national uprising and a revolutionary reaction of native Christians under King Basilides, succeeded in overthrowing this innovation, which has never really been popular with the masses. In recent years, again, the representatives of the Roman Catholic Church have been accorded privileges, especially by the late King Johannes, which were denied their Protestant competitors. As is seen especially from the posthumous publication of Münzberger, himself a Jesuit missionary in Abyssinia, the Vatican authorities have succeeded in reestablishing the framework of a hierarchy in Abyssinia, while the Protestant missionaries have been excluded from the country and been allowed to labor only on the coast; or, at best, as in the case of the veteran Abyssinian missionary Krapf, been permitted to send Bible and other mission literature to their former converts, the Falashas, or Black Jews. These have during all these years remained faithful to the evangelical teachings of the Protestant missionaries; and now and then word, in the shape of a letter from one of their leaders, reaches western mission journals. It is very evident, tho, that the present dynasty in Abyssinia does not look upon the offers of the Roman Catholic Church. King Menelek returned a very polite but equally firm non possumus to the request of the pope, and with this disappointment his representative was compelled to depart.
It is evident, however, that the king by this reply does not wish to sever his connections with western Christianity. On the contrary, it is plain that he has the fixed determination to maintain friendly relations. He has generously consented that a commission of western scholars shall have free access to the literary treasures that for probably a thousand years and more have been deposited in the vaults of the Cathedral at Axum, the old capital city of the Abyssinian Empire. They have been a sealed book to western scholarship all along, who only knew that there must be valuable relics of early Christian literature here, rare specimens that had been lost to Graeco-Latin Christianity. Abyssinia has already given the church excellent works of this kind, such as an exceptionally good version of the Scriptures, the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, Ascension of Isaiah, and the like; and as the Axum collection is known to contain also papyrus documents, the well-grounded opinion prevails in competent circles that Christian literature can expect some rich finds here.
In addition to this collection there are famous libraries on the islands of Lake Zana, in southern Abyssinia, where for a thousand years and more the monks have not allowed any layman to land, until King Menelek under military escort recently put his foot on this sacred soil. These two are to be made accessible to scholars, who, however, as yet know nothing definite as to the literary or historical value of these collections. The indications, however, are that these libraries are, in their way and manner, for the Abyssinian Church what the famous Mt. Athos cloister collections are for the Orthodox Greek Church.
The Italian expedition has been fruitful of good results in this direction, altho the number of manuscripts secured is not by any means equal to that brought back by the British expedition under Napier forty years ago. Some descriptions of these finds are being published, the latest and most important being probably the inscription discussed by Eduard Glaser in the last number of the Journal of the German Oriental Society, this inscription turning out to be older than the introduction of Christianity into Abyssinia, and being particularly interesting for the study of the Semitic and Abyssinian alphabets.
But while the Abyssinian Church shows no inclination to renew her connection with the Roman Catholic Church, it has in recent months been making systematic efforts to come to an understanding with the Orthodox Church of the east, notably the Russian. That the Russian and not the Greek branch of the Eastern Church is selected for these union and reunion efforts is probably owing to historic and political causes. The Abyssinian was at one time a part and portion of the Greek Church; in fact, the modern church and Christianity of Abyssinia is a stereotyped reproduction and formal petrification of the Greek Church of the fourth century. But then the Greek Church and the Abyssinian separated for dogmatic reasons. The doctrine of the one or two natures of Christ was the issue at stake. The Abyssinians are very proud of their monophysitic peculiarities; while, on the other hand, the Greek Church continues to uphold the Chalcedon Synod, which is repudiated in Abyssinia. This state of affairs naturally makes the question of a union with the old Greek Church a matter of greater difficulty, as the Abyssinians are by no means ready to give up their theological idiosyncrasies. On the other hand, the Russian is a later branch of the Eastern Church, that did not pass through the ups and downs of theological controversies that drove the Abyssinian Church out of the church general. While theoretically the same doctrinal difficulties exist here too, yet practically and historically the basis for reunion in this case is of a more tangible kind. Add to this the great political prominence of the Russian Empire, its zeal for the Orthodox propaganda in every direction, and it can be at least understood why so astute a man as King Menelek, who, like his great predecessor, King Theodorus, is more of a politician than a religious devotee, should seek to come to an understanding with the Church and State of Russia. It is only about a year ago that a formal embassy of Abyssinian Church dignitaries went to St. Petersburg, and were there overwhelmed with honors and gifts, and the whole program was given a decidedly religious flavor. Since then the relations have been kept up, tho naturally outsiders can only be allowed to guess from the interchange of messengers between these States, how far the movement has been successful.
It is only natural that Abyssinia should seek such a modus vivendi with Russia. In doctrine, worship, and in everything ecclesiastical, the Abyssinian is most closely connected with the church of the czar's empire. Only an inner revolution and complete rejuvenation could make Abyssinia the home of a genuine, living, evangelical Christianity; and under the circumstances it would seem to be a hopeless case. Possibly, if the church should form at least a federative, if not an organic union with that of Russia, and should come more and more under the influence of modern ideals of Christian civilization, the chances, or at least opportunities, for the spread of a genuine Christian life and faith would, among this gifted and historic nation, noticeably increase. Abyssinia once regained for Christianity would make an excellent basis of operations for the great work of conquering for the Gospel the vast length and breadth of the Dark Continent.—The Independent.