Why the Little Roll of Paper and Tobacco Is So Demoralizing and Deadly.
CIGARET-SMOKING was almost unknown in this country before the centennial exposition, in 1876, when it was made familiar to American eyes by exhibitors and visitors to the exposition from France, Italy, and countries farther east. With the spontaneous and pernicious activity of most vicious habits, the practise of cigaret-smoking took root, and developed in this country with marvelous rapidity, and within the last twelve or fifteen years, especially, has reached the proportions of a veritable plague, which is rapidly burning out the constitutions of the American people.
The idea has been widely propagated that the cigaret contains so little tobacco and such pure tobacco, that its effects can not be extremely harmful, and that it may be used with impunity, when the pipe, the cigar, or the quid, would almost certainly induce disease. A recent defender of the cigaret maintains that it is harmless, because the tobacco of which cigarets are generally made contains only one and one-half per cent. of nicotine, while the tobacco used in the strongest cigars shows a proportion of nicotine amounting to eight per cent., or five times as much.
This argument is wholly delusive. The cigaret is the most injurious form of tobacco, not because of the amount of nicotine it contains, but because of the enormous quantity which it introduces into the body. Nicotine does no one any harm so long as it remains in the cigar or the pipe or the cigaret; but when it is introduced into the blood and circulated through the system its mischievous work begins. The user of the pipe and the cigar-smoker receive into the system but a small proportion of the nicotine contained in the original tobacco. In the use of the cigaret the conditions are such that probably almost the entire amount of nicotine contained in the wrapper is absorbed.—Good Health.
Sunday’s Appeal to the Government
Sunday's Appeal to the Government.—It is said that the clergymen of Muskogee, I. T., have appealed to the United States Government to have Sunday baseball and other amusements on that day prohibited. The appeal went even to Washington, because the United States district attorney had not taken action in the matter. But the local official explained that "the question of Sunday amusements had been brought to the attention of the grand jury, but was not given attention for want of time." So the government noted in prophecy as having "horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon" (Rev. 13:11), is really taking cognizance of the "mark" of the beast (or power) whose image it is to set up, and whose worship it is to enforce. Surely the word of the Lord can not fail. And the so-called ministers of the Gospel are urging on the completion of the terrible persecutions that must inevitably accompany the enforcement of religion by the power of the government. The distinguishing feature of the "first beast" (verse 12), described in the beginning of Revelation 13, is church and state union, and compulsory Sunday observance was the beginning of the persecutions that arose under the first union of the Christian Church with the state. The Dark Ages followed as a logical sequence, and the same cause will produce a like effect again.
THE SUNDAY MANIA AT THE PEACE CONFERENCE.
EVEN the peace conference had to have a touch of the Sunday mania, and of course it was not for the promotion of peace and amity that it was introduced, or that it served. At the suggestion of the Russians (it was claimed by the Japanese), one or two sessions of the conference were to have been held on Sunday, August 13; but in an interview on the previous day M. Witte concluded a petulant statement, attempting to put the Japanese in a bad light with the press and public respecting the secrecy of the conference proceedings, with the declaration that there would be no morning session the next day, because, "being a Christian," he proposed to attend church on Sunday.
The Japanese view of this utterance was that it tended to put them in the position of being pagans, and might not have a good effect upon their popularity in this country, and after consulting over the matter, they sent word to M. Witte that, having other business to transact, they wished no sitting in the conference until Monday, and the plans were changed accordingly. In connection with this action one of the Japanese spokesmen said: "It was the Christians who proposed the holding of a Sunday conference. The suggestion did not come from our side. Now we have prevented the holding of a Sunday conference."
On Sunday morning M. Witte and his colleague and eight others of the Russian mission attended the service at Christ Episcopal Church, and it is said that the Japanese, after consultation, sent their junior envoy, Mr. Takahira, and Commander Takashita, of their mission, to church in the evening. In taking the course he did in the matter, M. Witte, according to the New York Evening Post, "fell in with the desire of the governor of New Hampshire and the Third Assistant Secretary of State for a strict observance of the Sabbath," and scored again in his perspicacious angling for American favor by contrasting his own religion with that of the heathen Japanese. "It certainly goes to show that this world-moving meeting at Portsmouth has its humorous side," remarked the Post.
DRAWING TOWARD ROME.
By Editor
We are given some new evidence every week that the movement toward Rome in this country among the so-called evangelical churches is going on apace. The trend toward Rome must be apparent to the most superficial observer. That it can not be imputed merely to growing liberality of sentiment, or a broader brotherly feeling merely, is shown in the fact that the customs and teachings of Rome are being adopted, and the example of Rome is being followed in ritualism, in disregard for the law of God in its purity, in fasts and holidays, and in looking to Rome's leaders for counsel and blessing.
The newest evidence of this tendency was manifest recently at Washington, D. C. We quote the Washington despatch just as sent out by the Call Bureau of Washington, under date of August 28:
By seeking and obtaining the blessing of Cardinal Gibbons upon a cross to be presented to Miss Marie Smith, a bright pupil of the Sunday-school of the Washington Heights Presbyterian Church, the Rev. E. Lawrence Hunt, pastor of that church, startled some of his congregation yesterday, particularly the elders. It was Mr. Hunt's farewell service, as his resignation will take effect on September 1. At the conclusion of his sermon, he approached Miss Smith and said:
"I saw Cardinal Gibbons last week, and his Eminence graciously promised that if I would send him the cross, he would bless it. I did so. This will have an added sacredness and value to you as a faithful child of the church, because it has a cardinal's blessing. In my judgment, too, as a Protestant minister, his blessing means much to you personally. From my point of view it means that a great, good man is interested in you, and he prayed for you."
"But Cardinal Gibbons' blessing of this cross has a wider significance. It is of interest to all. The church of God is the hope of the world. That a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church should bless a cross given by a minister of the Presbyterian church of Washington to a child as a reward for learning the Gospel of St. John out of a Bible given by a Presbyterian Board, will do untold good to the Roman Catholic Church."
There can be no doubt that the Catholic Church will be advantaged by it. Every such move made places Rome on new vantage-ground in the way of gaining influence and adherents. What other result could come from the gift of a Catholic emblem carrying the "blessing" of the Catholic cardinal of America to a Protestant Sunday-school pupil as a "reward of merit"? What else could it signify than the idea that there was greater efficacy in the "blessing" of the cardinal and the prayer of the cardinal than in that of any official of the church to which that pupil belonged? It is also worthy of note that these advances are all made by so-called Protestants. Rome does not come over the boundary to meet her admirers—they must come to her; and they are coming and bringing their flocks with them. This instance is not isolated—it is symptomatic. It is in perfect harmony with the great trend toward Rome and away from Protestant principles, away from the Reformation and all it stood for.
An innovation has been introduced into the services of one of the Episcopal churches of San Francisco that is in accord with this Romeward tendency. This church, known as the Church of the Advent, has the reputation of being "extremely ritualistic," and follows many of the rites and ceremonies that have long been obsolete in the Anglican Church generally. The following regarding this innovation we quote from the San Francisco Call, of recent date:
While the saints in the calendar have certain days which are commemorative and observed by all members with prayer and praise, the custom of the Roman Church of adopting a "patron" from among them is not followed to any extent. The Church of the Advent is the first on the Pacific Coast to revive a custom which has tradition and ancient custom to justify it. This church has ranged itself under the banner of St. John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Christ, and henceforth will consider itself under the special protection of this saint. Supplications will be made for his favor, and a special day appointed in his special honor. To-day being the "Feast of St. John the Baptist," the services will be devoted to a contemplation of the life and martyrdom of one of the greatest minds in Biblical history.
This custom of choosing a patron saint is purely a Roman Catholic custom. It will be noticed that this Episcopal Church purposes to make supplications to St. John for his special favor, as if he were in a position to hear and answer prayer as does our Lord. Even if St. John were now in heaven, we have no authority for praying to him, instead of to Christ. But it is only logical that, having adopted the doctrines of Babylon, her practices should be followed also. So drifts the great religious world toward Rome.
SUNDAY ENFORCEMENT NOTES AND COMMENT.
By Editor
UNDER the caption, "Weekly Rest-day in Italy," the Review of Reviews presents the following:
"Some months ago the Italian Parliament voted down a bill providing for a weekly day of rest for employees supported by several associations and leagues of several years' standing. In the Riforma Sociale Turin-Rome, E. Loli-Piccolomini discusses the reasons for this defeat, the general principles of a rest day, and the practical conditions necessary for probability of success for future legislation. The defeat of the bill offered by Deputies Cabrini, Nofri, and Chiesa he ascribes to its too wholesale and arbitrary character, overloaded, as it became, with impractical amendments. In principle it was almost universally approved. The writer insists that individual liberty to work or not must be respected. Tho for various practicable reasons Sunday rest is preferable to the fixing of any other one day, or of leaving the choice of day optional, the state should be entirely lay, and should take no account of the dogma of any religion, because all should be free to exercise their own moral action. The chief difficulty lies in application to the various conditions of industries, the railroads and newspapers being most complex in their problems, into which the writer goes extensively."
It is evident from this that there is to be a continuation of the movement for a weekly rest-day law in Italy. And the important and significant fact is also evident from this that the basis of such legislation is altogether different on the part of the working class and the Socialists (who are the force behind this movement in Italy), from that of the religious element.
STRICT enforcement of the Sunday ordinance with regard to Sunday selling and opening of business places has been inaugurated by the city authorities of McPherson, Kan. On July 25 the city marshal served notice on merchants who were found selling goods on the preceding Sunday that Sunday sales must cease, and that if their stores were found open for business on the following Sunday arrests would be made. He stated that he had been instructed to put a stop to all illegal selling on Sunday, and would carry his order out to the letter. The city officials are determined to put a stop to all Sunday selling of goods as restricted by the city ordinance. A local newspaper says other towns in the state, and especially large towns, observe the Sunday-selling laws very closely, and the day is soon coming when they will be enforced in every town in the state, and McPherson should not be backward in following the good example of her sister cities.
IN response to complaints by grocers that the meat markets are disregarding the law by keeping their places open a part of each Sunday, the chief of police of Wichita, Kan., has announced that every place of business found open on Sunday in the future, contrary to law, will be closed and the proprietors arrested. The Lawrence Journal observes that while the violation of law on one day by the butcher shops is not to be tolerated in Wichita, nothing is said about the every-day violation of the prohibitory law. But the Journal should remember that it is not the every-day violation of law, but the violation of Sunday law, that is the terrible thing in these days of uncompromising "law enforcement."
AT Geneva, N. Y., on July 14, the jury in the case of certain baseball players charged with a violation of law regarding Sunday ball, returned a verdict of acquittal after being out six minutes. The next day it was announced that mass-meetings to protest against the continuance of Sunday baseball would be held immediately in the leading Methodist and Baptist churches of the place.
RUSSIA—JAPAN.
THE treaty of peace between Russia and Japan was signed by the envoys of those countries at Portsmouth, N. H., on Tuesday, September 5. By its provisions Russia recognizes Japan's preponderating interests in Korea, and allows her a free hand there; the territory of Manchuria is to be evacuated simultaneously by both powers; all of Russia's interests in Port Arthur, Dalney, and adjacent territory pass over to Japan; the Manchurian railway is to be operated conjointly by Russia and Japan; Russia cedes to Japan the southern half of Saghalien Island; Japan secures rights to the fishing grounds of the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, and Bering Sea; each nation pays the other for the actual support of the prisoners taken during the war. The treaty must be ratified by the two emperors within fifty days after the signing of the treaty by the envoys, and the evacuation of Manchuria must be complete within eighteen months.
This treaty of peace has not been received with any degree of enthusiasm by the Russians, and the Japanese people are bitterly opposed to its ratification. Strong protests are being made, and mob violence has been resorted to in many places. Americans have been assaulted in the streets of Tokio, because of the part played by Americans in bringing about the peace compact.
Diplomatic relations were broken off between Japan and Russia on Feb. 5, 1904. The first battle of the war opened on February 8, with Togo's attack on Port Arthur, and the gunboat action at Chemulpo, Korea. During the war Russia lost 68 war-vessels of various styles, and Japan 24. Thirty-one of the vessels lost by Russia were cruisers and battleships. Japan lost but six of these. Russia lost in killed and wounded 192,000 men; Japan, 154,000 men. The cost to Russia is placed at about one billion dollars; the cost to Japan about six hundred million.
An unusual feature of the labor-day parade of San Jose, Cal., was the marching of the pastors of that city in the procession with the union men. The San Jose despatch, containing this item of news, states that the pastors of that city have a union of their own. It says further: "The ministerial union belongs to the Federated Trades. It is believed to be the first time that ministers have paraded with union men." Such a scene marks a striking departure from the simplicity and humility and devotion of the disciples of Christ. This formation of a labor union by the professed ministers of Christ, and the placing of themselves under the control or direction of an organization wholly worldly in its purposes and management, is a long step into the world by men whose purpose should be to win men out of the world.
Cholera is still claiming victims in Germany. Since the outbreak of this dread disease, there have been in Berlin 105 cases and 32 deaths. It is making its appearance in a number of other places. Cases are reported from Vienna, Bromberg, Marienwerder, Rastenburg, Posen, and Marienburg. The authorities are doing all in their power to stay its progress, and the war office has postponed its army maneuvers on account of the plague.
Another outrage upon the Jews is reported from Kisheneff, Southwestern Russia. While a Jewish funeral procession was on its way to the cemetery it was attacked by police and soldiers. Many of the Jews in the procession were wounded, and 50 were arrested. A number who are missing are supposed to have been killed.
The uprising of Chinese in southern Shansi, China, against the missionaries is said to be assuming serious proportions. Churches have been raided and destroyed, priests have been beaten and killed, and mission houses have been burned.
For the insult offered to the American flag recently at Amoy, China, as a result of the boycott against American goods, China has apologized by sending a war-ship to Amoy, and firing a salute of twenty-one guns to the American flag.
The threatened trouble between France and Morocco has been averted by the Sultan of Morocco making due apology to France, and paying a considerable amount of money for having arrested a French citizen.
A typhoon has swept along the coast of Tonquin, China, and has strewn the coast with the wreckage of hundreds of junks. A great many lives have been lost, and property has been destroyed to the amount of about $300,000.
Serious complications are threatened between France and Venezuela. The president of the latter country has ordered the closing of the French cable.
FORETOKENS OF OUR LORD'S RETURN
By George W. Rine
BY PROF. GEORGE W. RINE
SPIRITUAL DECADENCE IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.
IF, at the time of the first advent of Jesus, the teachers and rulers in Israel had really believed the testimony of the Old Testament prophets, they would have recognized and accepted Jesus as their expected Messiah and Saviour. Did not Christ tell them that if they had believed Moses and the prophets they would have accepted and believed Him? But their faith and practise were hopelessly bound up in their traditions—their philosophy, and what was, in effect, their "higher criticism." The awful result was that, in ignorance—albeit culpable ignorance—they crucified the Lord of glory. They knew not the day of their visitation, simply because they refused to believe God's prophets.
Even so should it be in the days when the Son of Man shall be revealed. Just as Jesus prophetically foresaw, there is no "faith on the earth." Our Lord had His prophetic eye on these very days just preceding His glorious return, when He declared: "Because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of many shall wax cold." Matt. 24:12. The context shows convincingly that this divine forecast would find its fulfilment in the days when "this Gospel of the kingdom" should "be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations;" immediately after which, "shall the end come." Verse 14.
In the preceding article of this series an array of evidence was set forth calculated to prove the incredible extent to which the holy Scriptures have been repudiated. As briefly as may be practicable, I shall indicate the sweeping completeness with which the propitiatory atonement wrought by the sacrificial death of Christ has been nullified and subverted in the teachings of present-day theologians.
The Divine Atonement Rejected.
The Rev. G. Bettex, one of the few German scholars who have not thrown their Christian faith to the winds, in his work entitled, "The Bible, the Word of God," gives the following startling summary of the results of modern Biblical criticism. It should most assuredly open the eyes of all sincere Christian believers:
According to this radical criticism is there any inspiration?—None. Any Trinity?—None. Any fall into sin?—None. Any devil or angel?—None. Any miracles?—None. Any law from Mount Sinai?—None. Any wrath of God?—None. Any prophecy?—None. Is Christ God?—No. Is the death of Christ vicarious?—No. Did Christ rise from the dead?—No. Has there been any outpouring of the Holy Ghost?—No. Will there be any resurrection of all the dead or a final judgment?—No. This is rather radical, and practically robs Christianity of everything that it has. With this kind of a faith Christianity can not live.
Does not all this virtually amount to a declaration of war on the Gospel, on the part of its ostensible champions and interpreters? Of course the only regrettable result of such impious warfare is the inevitable subversion of the faith of many. But as for Christianity itself, she is eternally invincible, for the Most High is her author and defender. He has reared her battlements of adamant against which her enemies will impotently dash themselves to pieces.
S. D. McConnell, D.D., LL.D., rector of All-Souls' Episcopal Church, New York City, is the author of a recently-published book, entitled "Christ," in which he struggles like a modern Ajax to prove that the doctrine of a sacrificial atonement is foreign to the primitive Gospel. A few citations from his book will suffice to show how utterly at variance with the whole tenor and genius of the Gospel are his contentions.
To the question, "Did the apostles and early teachers at first believe in or preach the doctrine of the Atonement?" the author gives the unqualified answer, "They did not." For thirty years, he insists, they had no defined Christology. Now, every reader who knows his Bible must know that Dr. McConnell and the inspired record of the apostolic church can not both be true. We can only say with David, "LET GOD BE TRUE."
Observe how the doctor again flatly contradicts the sacred record, in the following astounding question, with its answer:
"To begin with, let us ask the plain question, Did Jesus Himself conceive of Himself as a propitiatory sacrifice, or His work as an expiation? The only answer is, Clearly He did not." It is evident that Dr. McConnell has made shipwreck of his faith in the authenticity of the four Gospels and the epistles of the New Testament, or else he could not possibly reason (!) as he does and at the same time lay claim to mental sanity. A score of citations from the Saviour's own words could be adduced to prove that He did conceive of Himself as a propitiatory sacrifice. Note this unequivocal statement from His own lips, as recorded in Mark 10:45: "For the Son of Man also came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a RANSOM for many."
Now, Dr. McConnell is one of the most learned and influential men in the American Episcopal Church. He avows himself not only a Christian but a Christian minister, and yet instead of "contending for the faith once delivered to the fathers," he strenuously contends for the subversion and overthrow of that same "faith." He is a type of hundreds of professedly Christian clergymen who are all equally heterodox and self-stultifying. My sole purpose in referring to the doctor's remarkable book at all, is the evidence it affords of the solemn fact that we are even now living in those "last days" in which the Holy Spirit declares that the nominal Christian churches will have a "form of godliness," but deny "the power thereof." Be it remembered that Dr. M.'s "strange" teaching is not an exceptional or sporadic incident, but is typical of the views and teachings which obtain with practically all the so-called "higher clergy" of the Protestant world.
Spiritual Barrenness of the Churches.
It would not be difficult to compile a large volume of testimony from earnest Christian workers, to the effect that the professed Christian churches are deplorably destitute of spiritual power. I shall first transcribe a few strikingly pertinent excerpts from The Universalist Leader, dated August 27, 1904, and published at Boston:
"The Christian church is being starved to death by its friends. Emaciated and weakened, this once regal figure stands with outstretched hands pitifully pleading the privilege to live. . . . Once autocratic, now apologetic; once loved and respected, now lonesome and rejected."
After stating that we have had ebb tides of religious interest in past years, the writer proceeds: "We are persuaded that we are not merely approaching one of these ebb tides in religious history; the religious waters are already far out, and the world is stranded on the rocks of sin, in imminent danger of appalling disaster."
The writer next enumerates an astounding number of crimes and sins that are to-day rampant in society, and states that "we are eye-witnesses of a public degeneracy which should appal us." He continues:
The decadence of the church is not so much due to these conditions as these conditions are due to the decadence of the church [italics his]. We have turned things right around, and have been working at the wrong end. As the church has declined, sin and evil have increased and the real problem which we face to-day is not this, that, or some other specific evil, but the church itself, for every problem, individual, social, economic, municipal, or national, is primarily a religious question.
A great cause, if not the great cause, of the decline, is found in the fact that the church has ceased to be a church where the people may come for the worship of God, and through that worship receive the divine influence into their souls, and has become almost everything the ingenuity of man could conceive. The church has become a social center, a lectureship, a school, a college, a literary society, a place of amusement, a bazaar, a library, an institution of philanthropy, a nursery, a kindergarten, a soup kitchen, an employment bureau, or a political caucus.
And you ministers are responsible for this absence of soul life. You have sold your divine birthright for a mess of pottage. . . . You have not stuck to your calling; you run after every scheme for saving the world by fiat, or by vote, or by purchase, or by organization, or by institution, when there is no other name under heaven by which the world can be saved except Christ Jesus; and if you do not believe that, what are you doing in the Christian ministry? You know ten times as much about the Bible as the fathers did, but you do not know as much Bible; you know all the theories of prayer, but you do not pray. You are the victims of every fad; you had rather quote Browning than Jesus Christ; you had rather lecture on the North Pole than to preach the Gospel; you had rather write a popular novel than to write a sermon; you ride your hobbies, you get up excursions, you give entertainments, you take up an agency or run a hotel, anything, everything, except sticking to your calling to which you are called of God. . . .
The Christian laity, you men and women of the church, have not taken this divine institution seriously. You have not thought of it as of far more lasting importance than the government under which you live, of far more vital moment to you than the schools and colleges which you generously support and richly endow—yea, far more to you in the great eternity in which you must live, than your homes, your business, your bodies, your very lives. . . . You will spend ten times as much on a two weeks' vacation as you do on a year's food for your—souls'. You have no sense of obligation to your church; you give to that if you have anything to spare, you pay your bills at the grocery. Why do9you not lift the church to the dignity that is hers by right?
Every candid observer must admit that this caustic stricture on the spiritual status of the churches does not in the least exaggerate the actual conditions prevailing in the religious realm.
[The remainder of this article deals with "The Church and Tainted Money," "Why So Few Able Men Prepare for the Ministry," and "The Crisis of the Hour."]
SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES
By F. D. Starr
LUKE.
THO not one of the twelve apostles, yet Luke was one of the chosen persons on whom was bestowed the honor of writing the history of our Lord's life and sufferings. We learn from his introduction that there were quite a number who took up the pen for this same purpose. He states that "many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration" of those things.
As Luke wrote his Gospel about twenty-eight years after the resurrection of Christ, the only two persons of whom we have any inspired record that had preceded him in this matter were Matthew and Mark, for John did not write his Gospel till some thirty-five years after Luke wrote his. Two persons could hardly be spoken of as "many," therefore other persons besides Matthew and Mark must have written the history of our Saviour's work, and these histories or Gospels have not been preserved to posterity as have the four that are found in the Sacred Volume. But we have enough. The Lord knew just how many and which ones ought to be handed down to us. It was not His plan to make the record a cumbersome production. Let us thank Him for what we have, and carefully study the same.10
It is thought that Luke may have been a Gentile by birth. We find from Col. 4:14 that he was a physician. This should be an encouragement and a model to Gospel workers to-day. The consecrated physician or nurse can add immensely to his usefulness by being prepared to practise the healing art, and thus work for the physical as well as the spiritual welfare of the people, as did the Great Physician himself.
It seems that Luke was with Paul at the time of his imprisonment at Rome. 2 Tim. 4:11. Luke wrote also the book of Acts, so that, with the exception of Paul, no other person wrote New Testament matter so extensively as he. If it be true that Luke was not of Jewish descent, he must be the only person not descended from Abraham who wrote any part of the Holy Scriptures of either the Old or New Testaments.
It is a most fortunate thing for us that "it seemed good" unto Luke, as he states it, to write a declaration of those things pertaining to the kingdom of God, for there are many things mentioned in his book that are not recorded in any of the other Gospels. We will mention some of these: The announcement by the angel to Zacharias and Elizabeth concerning the birth of their son, John the Baptist; the infant Saviour adored by the shepherds; the childhood, youth, and early manhood of Jesus, as well as His talk with the doctors in the temple; raising the son of the widow of Nain; sending out the seventy disciples, and their return; the parable of the Good Samaritan; the foolish rich man; the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices; the barren fig tree; the lost sheep; the prodigal son; the rich man and Lazarus; Zacchaeus climbing the sycamore tree; the parable of the ten pounds; Jesus sent by Pilate to Herod; Jesus praying for His murderers, etc.
One other thing narrated by Luke, but not by the other evangelists, to which we would like to call special attention is the penitent thief on the cross and our Lord's reply to his request. There is evidently quite a misapprehension of the significance of those words. The thief made this request: "Remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom." (R. V.) Jesus' reply was, "Verily I say unto thee to-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." Our translators or compilers have placed the comma so as to make it appear that the Lord assured the penitent that he would meet him in Paradise that day, but Mr. Rotherham, a very noted scholar and translator, assures us in his translation of the New Testament that it would be fully as much in harmony with the original to place the comma after the term to-day as before it. The passage would then read "Verily I say unto thee to-day, Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." Any Greek scholar must admit that this is so. The thief asked to be remembered when Christ should come in His kingdom, in the future. Jesus assures him that that matter is settled then, that his case is sure. When we take into consideration the fact that the thief did not die that day, and that Jesus had not yet ascended to Paradise the third day after this promise was made, we can more readily see that He did not mean that He would meet the thief in Paradise that day. And when we take into account the Scripture teaching that the dead are unconscious till the resurrection, we see still more clearly that the Saviour used the word to-day as an expression of emphasis. This was common in Scripture language; for instance see Prov. 22:19: "That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee." How similar this language to that of Luke 23:43, and how evident that the to-day is used as a term of emphasis. See also Zech. 9:12: "Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope; even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee." The to-day adds force to the expression.
We close this article with the attention called to the scene at Bethany (Luke 24:50-53), where with extended hands the blessed Jesus pronounces a parting benediction; and may we, with the early disciples, be continually praising, blessing, and worshiping our ascended Lord.
COMFORT FOR THE SAD, SICK, AND WEARY.
By Daniel Nettleton
BY DANIEL NETTLETON.
THE Lord is willing and able to heal sick people. Pray to Him. Say, "Thy will be done."
"And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. And He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she arose, and ministered unto them. When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils; and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." Matt. 8: 14-17.
Jesus came not only to save His people from their sins, but to save them from the effects of their sins,—to heal their diseases.
"The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses."
"And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and drew to the shore. And when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew Him, and ran through that whole region 'round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard He was. And whithersoever He entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought Him that they might touch if it were but the border of His garment; and as many as touched Him were made whole." Mark 6: 53-56.
This is the way Jesus did when on earth.
"And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogs, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them. And there followed Him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan." Matt. 4: 23-25.
No wonder the people followed Him. Would they not follow Him now if He were here? But is He not here? "I am with you alway." "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." Heb. 13: 8.
It is Satan that brought sin, sickness, and death into our world. He leads men to transgress God's law, and, as a result, sickness and death follow. Sickness is caused by the violation of nature's law, which is the law of God. "The wages of sin is death." Satan knows that he can not overcome man unless he can control his will, and he gets the control of man's will by leading him into sin, and thus weakening his physical and moral nature. But thank the Lord, Satan is to be cast out, and his work destroyed.
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" Isa. 14: 12.
Satan has weakened the nations by intemperance. Eating unhealthful foods, and eating to excess even of good food, is intemperance. Wrong habits in eating and drinking, continued for many generations, have weakened the human family and cut short the period of man's life.
God's loving-kindness is better than life, and He desires your lips to praise Him. You may not feel like doing this. You say, "I am sick;" but say this: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." It is your privilege to say, "For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed."
"Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of My people recovered?" Jer. 8: 22.
Yes, there is a balm for all the afflicted ones, — "the great Physician now is here, the sympathizing Jesus." The Lord has promised to heal thee of thy wounds and restore thy health. Jer. 30: 17.
