Earlier text: Waiting Upon GodHymn to Jesus
By N. W. Vincent
To man and freedom true,
We bring to God his due —
A thankful heart.
We would, O Christ, be pure;
No more may sin allure;
Now make our triumph sure:
Our all thou art! To Christ, our life and king,
Loud halleluiahs sing,
Sweet hymns of praise!
In love for us he died;
Now risen, glorified;
Our victory when tried,
To endless days! Our Father, God of love,
Come to us from above,
Fill us with thee;
In our Redeemer’s name,
Who Satan overcame,
Help us to spread thy fame,
Pure, glad, and free. Self-Denial
By Millie E. Steele
The history of the early Jews is one that should be of great interest and profit to God's remnant people. We should read it carefully and often, for “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning.” We see in their history that when Israel walked with God, they received blessings in abundance and were prospered; but as soon as they ceased to follow him, they fell into all kinds of sin, even to the setting up of false gods. There are many ways of establishing false gods other than to worship visible idols. So much has already been written by the spirit of prophecy in regard to these things that it seems needless to write more; but like children we soon forget. It seems so much easier to walk by sight than by faith, and the world offers many attractions intensely exciting. After God had given to his people so many and such perfect laws for their guidance, they were not long satisfied. Seeing the heathen nations around them apparently happy and prosperous in spite of their wickedness, they desired to be like them, and asked God to give them a visible king, as they had wearied of following one whom they could not see. We see in this the beginning of their downfall. Satan is very clever, and as soon as he sees the slightest opportunity, he slips in almost before we know it, and instead of following the Lord closely, like Peter we follow afar off, and sometimes even deny him. Jesus left his home in glory to come to this world to die an ignominious death for us. Can we comprehend so great a sacrifice? When we listen to the accounts of returned missionaries—what they tell us of the conditions they encounter, what they have had to renounce in the way of earthly comforts—and compare these with the glories of heaven, we can have only the faintest idea of what Christ sacrificed for us. How to pay the great debt we owe is the thought that should have precedence in our minds. We think many times we are very self-denying, but are we really so? Could we not make even greater sacrifices without inconveniencing ourselves greatly? Think of the young African girl who, having no other way to make a gift to the Lord according to her sense of gratitude, sold herself to a life of slavery. How many of us feel our debt so keenly that we would do likewise, or do a thing equivalent? Do we really love the Lord with all our might, mind, and strength? What a good thing it might be for us to keep a self-denial box in a very conspicuous place, and when we are tempted to buy superfluous ribbons, laces, useless adornings, to take frequent excursions, make fudge several times a week, or to buy ice-cream several times a day, to think of those whom we could help with a little self-denial, and ask ourselves, “Would Christ do so? Which would glorify him?” Perhaps we might be led to see that these things are not really so indispensable as they seem. They may appear to be trifles, but the savings that would accrue from them would increase the funds for missions in an astonishing manner. “It will take all to buy the field.” Do we desire to remain here forever in this vale of tears? If not, let us rally around the standard, and make the Lord's work the principal object of our lives. If we do not do our part faithfully, the Lord will raise up others more worthy, and we shall lose our crowns. The work must be done in this generation, and we see unmistakable evidences that it will be done. Many of us not only have all the comforts of life, but the luxuries as well. The prophet Haggai says: “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.” Is it a little thing to speak with our lips what our actions deny? If we really believe that the Lord will come in this generation, let us live with that as an ever-present thought. In sacred history we have no record of Christ's ever allowing himself anything but meager necessities. His Father's business was the thing that was before all others, and the same power that sustained him will sustain us. Let us prove it. Is the servant greater than the Master? If we would be more self-denying, perhaps we should not so frequently hear of missionaries returning because of unhygienic surroundings, thereby causing large expenditures, and also retarding the work. O self, self, self! when will it be “not I, but Christ”? When shall we separate ourselves from these things that we may be true sons and daughters of God? When the Macedonian cry is continually sounding, can any one hear it unmoved?—Not if he has any personal knowledge of foreign missions. Let us not put our treasures into bags with holes; but let it be the principal object of our lives, the delight of our hearts, to point to Christ so clearly that those who would see Jesus will have only to look in the direction our whole being is pointing. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” My Shepherd
By Oliver P. Wilson
O Saviour, I would follow thee,
And e'er abide
'Mid verdant fields thou givest me,
Where waters glide,—
Those living streams so free to me this
day.
O Saviour, Shepherd, ever keep my way! Thou art my Shepherd, kind and true;
I am thy sheep,
And would with cheer thy way pursue,
Though paths be steep;
But need thy life to glorify my clay.
O Saviour, Shepherd, ever keep my way. When I am prone to wander far,
Thou seekest late,
Dost watch my path, and keep ajar
Thy welcome gate;
Hear now my pleading, do not thou
delay;
O Saviour, Shepherd, ever keep my way. My life is full of joy and peace
Now thou art near;
Thy rod and staff bring sweet release
From every fear;
My cup o'erflows, nor shall it pass away;
For, Saviour, Shepherd, thou dost keep
my way. SEVERAL pages of each issue of the Homiletic Review are devoted to “Studies in Social Christianity,” subjects of a social and semipolitical nature being considered. The leading article in this department in the August number bears the title “Sunday and the Laboring Man,” and this is followed by a series of four studies upon the same general topic. An attempt is made to show that the physical and the civil basis furnishes sufficient ground for demanding Sunday rest and Sunday laws, the spiritual side of Sabbath observance being left wholly in the background. The opening paragraphs of the leading article run thus:— One of the most cheering signs of the times is the degree of recognition which spiritual laws are commanding among all classes of thinkers. Even the most determined apostles of materialism are compelled to admit that what religion has declared to be good for the soul is invariably good for the body. The allies of the church come from unexpected quarters, and their new evangel is sounded in trumpet tones in street and market-place. Statesmen have been compelled to acknowledge the economic value of foreign missions. The sign of the cross has led all the flags of the nations in the opening of the non-Christian world. The discovery of the vast majority of our fellow men has been the masterpiece of all our discoveries in this wonderful century. Trade, interchange of arts and literatures, international comity, and last, but not least, the dawning purpose of world peace,—these all, with their untold possibilities and prophecies, rest down upon the simple spiritual propositions; when men say “Our Father” together to God they are quite ready for all the rest. Accordingly, kings and parliaments and congresses are bidding the church Godspeed in her world ministry. States are placing the spiritual law of temperance upon their statute-books. They have at last seen that the self-governed citizen is the corner-stone of the state. What has been axiomatic in religion from the beginning, the state is now declaring to be fundamental in economics. The law of the weekly Sabbath which the church has declared to be divine in order and intent has waited longest for allies from the camp of materialism. Now the recruits are pouring in from all quarters. We used to warn our countrymen against the European Sunday. Now Germany, France, Belgium, with England and our own country, are leading the world in Sunday legislation. “Legislation on this subject is now so generally agitated that change of laws may be looked for at any time.” We see nothing cheering in the facts here stated. It has come to this: the aims of the church and of the state are now so nearly the same that the state is more ready to become the ally of the church and to pass laws which, it is thought, will greatly aid the work of the church. But what change has been wrought in order to bring these two organizations into such harmony of purpose? Has the state become more spiritual? or has the church permitted her spiritual perceptions to be dulled and her spiritual ideals to be materialized? Is the church now seeking to establish the kingdom of God as a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of believers? or has her work degenerated into an attempt to better social conditions, and to establish a spurious kingdom of God in the earth by legislative enactment? The world has not changed. It is still a worldly world. Its aims are not spiritual. The prince of this world is not devoting his energies to the upbuilding of the kingdom of God. Spiritual life and power do not find their origin or their stimulus in the laws of political bodies, and this partnership with “the camp of materialism” will result in an apostate Christianity, a degenerate ceremonialism, a form of godliness without the power thereof. As one means of helping along the cause of Sunday legislation this counsel is given:— We should help the cause of the Sunday rest by not confusing the religious Sunday with the civil Sunday, a confusion which has largely, but quite needlessly, created difficulties in the adoption of Sunday laws. People of alien birth in America often oppose Sunday laws as religious bigotry, but if the law be based solely on the natural necessity for rest, their opposition can, at least, be weakened. All such instruction as this is simply an education in deception. Representatives of the church who are mentally honest and who reject all subterfuge, frankly admit that the real basis of the demand for Sunday laws is a religious one, and that their purpose is to secure the observance of the day as a sabbath. Such an admission is a credit to their sincerity and truthfulness. But note the following effort to establish a civil-religious Sunday, as found in these studies:— If rest one day in seven is a law of nature, should not Sunday legislation be based on that fact, and not on its religious nature, so that those who are not religious must still admit the wisdom of the legislation? Is there not such a thing as a civil Sunday, wholly apart from the religious Sunday? Having the civil Sunday, can those who do believe in its religious significance observe it religiously? Should not the religious and civil Sunday go together? Here is certainly a most remarkable example of hocus-pocus logic, and argument with mental reservation. Religious people should demand Sunday laws in order to establish the civil Sunday, a thing entirely separate and apart from a religious Sunday. Having obtained this civil Sunday, they should at once cast it to the winds and put in its place the religious Sunday, thus having a religious Sunday by law; but they should not confuse the religious Sunday with the civil Sunday when asking for the legislation wanted, as this confusion “has largely, but quite needlessly, created difficulties in the adoption of Sunday laws.” In other words, Do not let your real purpose in seeking for Sunday laws be known, as it would interfere with your success, but having obtained the desired legislation, make the most of it for religious purposes. We do not charge these religious leaders with being consciously dishonest, or with deliberately misleading the people, but it does appear to us that their determined purpose to secure the aid of the state in making Sunday a national sabbath has blinded their minds and dulled their moral perception. The cause of true religion is only injured by such underhand methods. Jesus never advised his disciples to employ the power of the state in their behalf on the pretense that they were acting upon a merely civil basis. The Reformers repudiated all such interference. It is only apostate Protestantism which can revert to the casuistry and the practise of the Roman Catholic Church in the matter of the state support of religious dogmas. Once the World’s Chief Center
By W. A. S.
THE prophecy of Jeremiah 51 foretelling the doom of Babylon, described the weary desolation that would follow the overthrow of the world’s great seat of empire. The region was to become “a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness.” Reporting to the United States government some time ago, Mr. Fred Simpick, consul at Bagdad, said of this region:— So now this historic region, once the center of the world’s wealth, culture, and population, is reduced to a weary wilderness of sun, sand, and silence. Lean jackals yelp at night about the bones of kings, and the scorching simoon puffs its hot breath over miles of dust where once tall grain bent gracefully before the whispering breeze. The very climate has9 changed. From May till September, from 120° to 125° F. is a common shade temperature, and the sun temperature is unspeakable. Barely 2,500,000 people are left in all Mesopotamia. Yet here is a land of proved fertility, waiting only water to make it an area of immense value. The proud city of Babylon itself, whose utter overthrow was declared by the prophets, was long since lost under the sands of centuries; until there is even dispute as to its exact site. But the ancient valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris is touched by the new industrialism, and capital is seeking to do for it what has been done for Egypt, in the valley of the Nile. The consular report says:— For the past year 4,000 Arabs have toiled like moles, digging a new channel for the ancient Euphrates; in the dry bottom of this new channel a giant dam of concrete and American steel is being built. When all is ready, the river will be turned into this artificial channel, and the dam will raise the water to the required level. The first steam locomotive ever seen in the old garden of Eden [?] is now puffing noisily back and forth, hauling material for use in this giant dam. The day it started, wild Bedouins came from miles around, riding in on camels and donkeys to see the “smoke-horse with fire in it.” About 6,000,000 acres will eventually be watered by a canal to be dug, taking off water from Lake Akkar-Coof. Then old cities like Nippur, in Chaldea, where the University of Pennsylvania expedition lately dug up so many priceless relics of antiquity, may be brought to life once more. It is expected that irrigation will turn these regions of Mesopotamia into fruitful fields for grain and cotton. We see, in this opening up and development of the ancient land, the hand of Providence preparing the way for the gospel message to reach wandering tribes, hitherto almost unapproachable.
W. A. S. What Are We Doing?
By C. M. S.
WE sometimes congratulate ourselves that we are one of the most wide-awake denominations in the world; but the truth is that we have been sleeping when we should have been awake. We have not half realized the importance of our message, nor the craft and cunning of our foes. Within the past few months there have been swift and striking developments in this country and abroad, which prove beyond doubt that events we have calmly looked for, half expecting and half doubting, to take place some years hence, have been taking place right under our eyes, and we did not realize it. While we have been planning the details of a long campaign in the various departments of our work, the enemy has been diligently forging shackles with which to bind us and close up our unfinished operations. In seemingly peaceful tranquillity we have gone on planning this and that, not realizing that a gigantic combination has actually been formed in this country which will soon be in a place where it can, with one turn of the political screw, close down our institutions, prevent the distribution of our literature, and prohibit the public proclamation of our message. There are some even in our own ranks who lightly regard the idea that any such thing will happen, at least in the near future. These seem to feel that we shall be permitted to go on in the even tenor of our ways until it shall please God to call the work finished, and to call the workers home. Such are out of touch both with the spirit of the times and with the spirit of prophecy. That there is to be no such smooth sailing for our bark is plainly declared in the following from the spirit of prophecy:— According to the truth we have received above others, we are debtors to impart the same to them. We have no time to lose. The end is near. The passage from place to place to spread the truth will soon be hedged with dangers on the right hand and on the left. Everything will be placed to obstruct the way of the Lord’s messengers, so that they will not be able to do that which it is possible for them to do now. We must look our work fairly in the face, and advance as fast as possible in aggressive warfare. From the light given me of God, I know that the powers of darkness are working with intense energy from beneath, and with stealthy tread Satan is advancing to take those who are now asleep, as a wolf taking his prey. We have warnings now which we may give, a work now which we may do; but soon it will be more difficult than we can imagine.—“Testimonies for the Church, Vol. VI, page 22. We have from the same source these additional words of warning:— The work which the church has failed to do in a time of peace and prosperity, she will have to do in a terrible crisis, under most discouraging, forbidding circumstances. The warnings that worldly conformity has silenced or withheld, must be given under the fiercest opposition from enemies of the faith. . . . The members of the church will individually be tested and proved. They will be placed in circumstances where they will be forced to bear witness for the truth.—“Testimony for the Church,” No. 32, page 219. The servant of God has warned us again upon the point of wakefulness, watchfulness, and diligence in work. She says:— Would that I might say something to awaken you to the importance of this time, the significance of the events that are now taking place. I point you to the aggressive movements now being made for the restriction of religious liberty. God’s sanctified memorial has been torn down, and in its place a false sabbath, bearing no sanctity, stands before the world. And while the powers of darkness are stirring up the elements from beneath, the Lord God of heaven is sending power from above to meet the emergency by arousing his living agencies to exalt the law of heaven. . . . As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the Papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example. Our people are not half awake to do all in their power, with the facilities within their reach, to extend the message of warning.—“Testimonies for the Church, Vol. VI, page 18. The burden of the Lord’s messenger is very plain in this matter, and it requires little discernment to see that arrangements are actually being made now to bring about the very conditions of which she speaks. The federations of world powers and religious bodies now going on will erelong bring about those “most discouraging, forbidding circumstances.” The federations now formed and forming are as certain to bring about oppression and hindrance to our work as night is certain to follow day. Rome purposes to dominate the earth. She purposes to use the United States of America and other English-speaking countries to lead the rest of the world back into the “true fold.” That is why she is centering her energies now upon America and Great Britain. That is the reason for the great federation of her numerous secret societies in these countries; and knowing that fact, we are not at a loss to understand what relation the federations of Protestant societies bear to that work of hers, and what the result will be when their forces are joined against this message and those who are bearing it. It is time to awake, to put on the armor, and to stand fast here or to go there, as He may command. “Mending the Ten Commandments”
By W. W. P.
UNDER this title a liberal paper discusses the proposition which has been made in various quarters to abbreviate the decalogue. It evidently regards the moral code as a purely human production, and has an easy explanation of its “persistence, and world-wide acceptance.” In spite of this it is of the opinion that some changes would be advisable:— The ten commandments expressed the common sense of the world up to date, and their charm and power lies in this, that they went so little outside human experience concerning right and wrong that they still stand good. To prune them somewhat of their local associations and their temporary explanations can do no harm whatever. The pleasing assumption which is the real explanation of all this itching to put the law of God into better form, ministers to the conceit of man, and places human research above divine revelation.10 It is very manifest in the following language:— Unfortunately the fourth commandment does not have its purpose in the clause which is generally emphasized. Its real emphasis lies on the saying, Six days shalt thou labor, and on the seventh thou shalt have peace and rest. Nothing can be more absurd than for us to repeat what has been so long disproved—that the earth and the sea were made in six days, and that on the seventh the Lord Maker rested. It does not seem to occur to the writer of these great swelling words that “nothing can be more absurd” than for the creature to claim to know more about the origin of this world than the Creator. It is, furthermore, worthy of note that the fourth commandment, which furnishes the seal of authority to the law, is most viciously attacked, and is set aside as absolutely out of date in view of the conclusions of modern science. It is thus evident that Sabbath reform involves much more than a mere question of a day; that it is indeed the sign of the true God and of the integrity of the Word of God as against the assertions of human science. In fact, the Sabbath reform stands for the original gospel of salvation—the power of God—as taught by Christ and the apostles, and repudiates the modern idea of an evolutionary gospel resting upon research rather than upon revelation. To proclaim the Sabbath more fully is to proclaim a personal God as the Creator, a personal Christ as the only Saviour, and redemption as the new creation. There can be no compromise between this gospel of salvation and the false gospel of perfection attained by human effort according to the law of development. W. W. P. Nothing to Offer
By F. M. W.
WHAT have the critics of the Bible and of the Christian faith to offer for that which they would destroy? What power can they promise for holy living in this life? what hope for a life to come? Verily nothing. They proclaim a doctrine of negation, of criticism, of tearing down, and not of building up. Their criticism is destructive rather than constructive. The liberal theology, so-called, is an intellectualism, a religion of the head instead of the heart. It appeals to the fancy, but makes no appeal to the deeper well-springs of the life, leaving its advocates stranded and shipwrecked, with no faith in the Word of God, and but little if any faith in the existence and divine working of an infinite Creator. That liberal theology has not thus far accomplished its full purposes, especially in corrupting the simplicity of faith possessed by the common people, one of its leading spokesmen asserts, according to the Literary Digest of February 25. Rev. Dr. Rittelmeyer, of Nuremberg, writes in the Christliche Welt:— Let us ask honestly what results modern theology has attained practically. As far as the great masses of workingmen are concerned, practically nothing has been gained. They either do not understand it, or they distrust it. All the public discussions and popularization of modern critical views have not found any echo or sympathy among the ranks of the laboring people. And how about the educated classes? It has long since been the boast and hobby of advanced theology that it, and it alone, will satisfy the religious longings of the educated man who has broken with the traditional dogma and doctrines of orthodox Christianity. But what are the actual facts in the case? It is a fact that there are a considerable number among the educated who thankfully confess that they can accept Christianity only in the form in which it is taught by the advanced theologian. But how exceedingly small this number is! A periodical like the Christliche Welt, the only paper of its kind, has not been able to secure more than five thousand subscribers, although its contributors are the most brilliant in the land of scholars and thinkers; while periodicals that are exponents of the older views are read by tens and even hundreds of thousands. There are whole classes of society among the educated who are antagonistic to liberal tendencies in religion. Among these are the officers in the army and the navy, practitioners of the technical arts and of engineering, and almost to a man the whole world of business. It is foolish to close our eyes to these facts. It would be gratifying indeed if we could believe that the great flood of disguised infidelity which during the last few decades has swept into the great professed Christian church had in reality produced so little effect as this statement indicates. Many, we know, still stand true to the “faith once delivered to the saints” with respect to the acceptance of the great foundation principles of the plan of salvation and the inspiration of the Scriptures of truth. We rejoice that even in some degree the evil tide has been held back, as admitted by those who are desirous of pressing it forward. But the revelations of the last days will bring to light the terrible part which has been played by these religious skeptics in turning men away from God and leading them to trust in a savior of their own invention instead of the one Saviour of men. The seeds of doubt and skepticism which are being sown to-day by the higher critics and the advocates of liberal theology are honeycombing the professed church of Christ. Insidiously and silently, but none the less surely, are these doctrines destroying faith on the part of the masses in the very foundations of the Christian religion. They are as a silent leaven of evil which will result in transforming the mass. The end of it all will be the rejection of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of men, the discarding of the Scriptures of truth as the revelation of God, final destruction in the overwhelming flood at the last great day. The cause of this failure of liberal theology is plainly pointed out by this disciple of the liberal school. He assigns some of the reasons as follows:— One trouble is that modern theology has entirely grown out of criticism. Its weakness is intellectualism; it is a negative movement. We can understand the cry of the orthodox, that advanced theology is eliminating one thing after the other from our religious thought, and then asks, What is left? True, we answer, God is left. But is it not the case that the modern God-Father faith is generally a very weak and attenuated faith in a providence, and nothing more? And on this subject, too, we quarrel among ourselves, whether a God-Father troubles himself about little things only or about great things too, such as the forgiveness of sins. We do the same thing with Jesus. We speak of him as of a unique personality, as the highest revelation of the Father, and the like, but always connected with a certain skeptical undercurrent of thought; but we do not appreciate him in his deepest soul and in the great motives of his life. He is not for modern theology what he is for orthodoxy, the Saviour of the world and the Redeemer of mankind. Commenting upon the frank admission of this apostle of Christian (?) infidelity, the Evangelische Lutherische Kirchenzeitung of Leipzig, says:— The psychological and spiritual solution of Rittelmeyer’s problem is not so hard to find. The soul of man can not live on negations. To stir the soul there must be positive principles and epoch-making historical facts, such as are offered by the Scriptural teachings of Christ and his words. There can be religious life only where there is faith in him who is the truth and the life. Liberal theology has failed because it has nothing to offer. When the Scriptures of truth are rejected as the expression of the divine will to the human family, man is left to the vain imaginings of his own mind. Human philosophy then becomes the standard of moral action, the basis of religious belief. But this philosophy has no God in its system, no hope to offer, no power to impart by which character may be changed. Its advocates become the sport and prey of their own mental revelings. Truly the wisdom of man is foolishness with God. Dr. Parker, in the Life of Faith, speaks of the fruit borne by the Scriptures of truth in the lives of those who accept it in verity as the word of God. Such fruits as these can not be produced by any modern theology which would set aside or discount the divine origin or living power of the Word of God:— There is one test to which I can not but submit every creed, every religion, every book. What kind of manhood has it produced? What sort of men did the old Bible grow? What of their aspirations, their service, their sacrifice? They were grand men. Perhaps narrow-minded, perhaps austere, perhaps conservative11 but they were honorable, determined, self-sacrificing men. They were men who put themselves to a great deal of trouble for others. They gave away much money. They counted not their lives dear unto them. They liberated slaves, they smashed iniquitous monopolies, they founded missionary societies, they dared fire and sword, pestilence and cruelty. They had not the latest learning on the Pentateuch, Isaiah, and the Apocryphal books, but they gripped the Bible with a nerve of steel. They had immense and miracle-working faith. I believe in my heart that they were more self-sacrificing than many who laugh at their ignorance and condemn their narrowness. They believed in the literal inspiration of the Bible, in the immortality of the soul, in eternal punishment, in the atoning death of the Lord Jesus; and they cried after, if finally they might attain, the holiness of God. They were not critics, they were great workers; not grammarians, but generous givers; not pedants, but unsparing in benevolence and sacrifice. I judge every religion by the men it makes, and so judged, the Bible has no need to be ashamed of its stalwarts and its heroes. Of himself the Holy One declares: “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no savior.” No human savior will meet the needs of a lost race. No man-made system of social or religious ethics will accomplish the miracle of a changed life. In Christ and his gospel is our only hope. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greek seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” It is better to trust in the Lord and in his divine Word than to put confidence in men. Let us cling devoutly to the humble, trusting, childlike faith of the fathers. The Blight of Roman Catholicism
By F. M. W.
SPEAKING of the great blight which Roman Catholicism has been to those countries over which she has ruled with unlimited sway, the Western Recorder (Baptist) of August 17, quotes the historian, Macaulay, as follows:— But during the last three centuries, to stunt the growth of the human mind has been her chief object. Throughout Christendom whatever advance has been made in knowledge, freedom, wealth, and in the arts of life, has been made in spite of her, and has everywhere been in inverse proportion to her power. The loveliest and most fertile provinces of Europe have, under her rule, been sunk in poverty, in political servitude, and in intellectual torpor, while Protestant countries, once proverbial for sterility and barbarism, have been turned by skill and industry into gardens, and can boast of a long list of heroes and statesmen, philosophers and poets. Whoever, knowing what Italy and Scotland naturally are, and what four hundred years ago they actually were, will now compare the country around Rome with the country around Edinburgh, will be able to form some judgment as to the tendency of papal domination. . . . Whoever passes in Germany from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant principality, in Switzerland from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant canton, in Ireland from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant county, finds that he has passed from a lower to a higher civilization. On the other side of the Atlantic the same law prevails. To this quotation the Recorder adds:— That is, indeed, a deadly indictment of the greatest human organization that the world has ever seen, and yet one that will stand in any court in Christendom. The words of Macaulay are as true to-day as they were the day he uttered them. Wherever Roman Catholicism has had sway, it has left its blight of ignorance and illiteracy, in Roman Catholic and Protestant countries. . . . Without doubt, the Roman hierarchy has done more than any earthly institution to stay the progress of civilization, and to make ignorance the heritage of man. The Recorder believes that this “dread nightmare of human history will soon disappear in the awakening of a better day.” We join in this belief, but we do not believe that this day will be reached this side of eternity. The Scriptures declare that the great system represented by the Papacy will endure until the coming of the Son of man. With the other great false systems of religion, it will be overthrown at that time, and a better day will be ushered in by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the rule which he will establish among the saved nations of men. We join with the Recorder in saying, “May the God of our fathers hasten the coming of this glorious day.” LIFE affords no royal road to success in any line of achievement. Ordinarily a fortune can be secured only as the result of earnest labor. A good education can come only as the result of earnest study. The world stands ready to recognize merit wherever it is found, and the man who seeks to attain to true worth, through earnest, honest effort, will find a field for usefulness. Emerson once said: “If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.” Agreeable in Disagreement
It seems practically impossible always to agree with our fellows. Men are constituted differently; they view questions from different standpoints, hence there are times in their experience when they will differ from those around them. They can, however, at least be agreeable in the disagreement. Speaking of religious controversy, the Northwestern Christian Advocate of August 16, says:— It is of no sort of use for a man in these days to think himself infallible simply because he is talking religiously. Still less is it of any use for him to think that because he talks vociferously, he must therefore be talking commandingly or convincingly. In religious controversy the first requirement is self-control, the second is self-control, and the third is self-control. The controversialist who sets the graces of humility, charity, reverence, and forbearance aside can never commend the religion in which these graces root themselves. And the true end of controversy is persuasion, not persecution.
It is not true, as has been many times stated, that the voice of the people is the voice of God. Majorities, as a rule, have been on the wrong side. On this point the Christian Workers Magazine for July, says:— At the time of the deluge the voice of the people was not the voice of God; nor at the building of the tower of Babel; nor in Pilate’s court when they cried, “Crucify him, crucify him;” nor in France when they deified a harlot; nor in New England when they dragged William Lloyd Garrison through the streets with a rope. The Antichrist himself will be a man of the people and come forth from among them. As Bishop Nicholson expresses it, he will be the index of their thinking, especially their religious thinking; and in his assumed character as God he will be received by all that dwell upon the earth whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb. Concluding this comment, this journal, in speaking of the contrary sentiment expressed by a certain distinguished labor leader, adds:— It shows whither we are drifting, and makes us wish that in our fourth-of-July sermons this year the people could be persuaded to sit in the pews and let God stand in the pulpit for a change. It is a long while since he had a good opportunity to be heard.