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Review and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 48.

A Voice From Brazil
Earlier text: Practical Lessons From the Experiences of Israel

New South Wales Camp-Meeting

By G. B. Thompson

G. B. THOMPSON
THE NEW SOUTH WALES CONFERENCE was held September 15-25, in Rockdale, a suburb of the city of Sydney.
The membership of this conference is over one thousand. There was an encouraging attendance of our people at the meeting, and the churches were well represented by delegates. The camp was composed of some ninety tents, neatly and tastefully pitched, and the best arrangements throughout were excellent.
The Spirit of God was present from the beginning. A large number came forward at the revival service on both Sabbaths, seeking for victory over besetting sins, a pure life, and a closer walk with God.
A splendid company of young people were present, and the Lord blessed them very much. So far as I know, all consecrated their lives to his service. Prof. B. F. Machlan was present a portion of the time, and presented the advantages of a Christian education, such as can be secured at the Avondale school; and some who have not been in school before will be found there the coming year.
The young people have been quite active in missionary work during the year. They have purchased and paid for a tent, all complete, at a total cost of about $350. This tent will be used in field work this year. The first Sabbath of the meeting, a service was held with the young people, dedicating this tent to the work of God. The Lord came very near on this occasion. By their offerings, also, a school building has been built in Java during the year.
The laborers have had some most interesting experiences in presenting the truth in new fields, and laboring in the interests of the temperance campaign, and God has blessed their labors in gathering in quite a number of souls. During the year 126 were baptized and added to the church, and several companies will be organized during the coming year.
A temperance campaign in the state of New South Wales has been in progress for some months, and has opened the way for our people to come in touch with many leading Christian workers and business men of the state. Our people have been very active on this question; so much so, that the work of the Adventists was everywhere spoken of and favorably commented upon, and our literature was pronounced the best in the field. We need to widen our horizon a little, and learn that it is not best to stand aloof on this question. On this matter we have been instructed as follows: “I have been shown that we are not to shun W. C. T. U. workers. By uniting with them in behalf of total abstinence, we do not change our position regarding the observance of the seventh day, and we can show our appreciation of their position regarding the subject of temperance. By opening the door, and inviting them to unite with us on the temperance question, we secure their help along temperance lines; and they, by uniting with us, will hear new truths, which the Holy Spirit is waiting to impress upon hearts.”
When, as has been the case here, the temperance issue stands alone, we should step into the ranks, and fight the battle with them. This would put us into touch with souls who will be reached with the message, and who might never be reached in any other way. The temperance meetings here have been the best I have seen in a camp-meeting, and the temperance campaign waged by the New South Wales Conference, the most vigorous I have seen by our people anywhere. It is well worthy of study by our people in other fields, and will without doubt help our work very much. If the vote is successful, it will abolish the retail sale of liquor, which will be a tremendous victory for the temperance forces. The agitation is very strong. A meeting was held at the city hall in Sydney, at which the lord mayor presided, and leading temperance workers were present as speakers. Some of our workers were invited to occupy the platform with them.
The business of the conference was very harmonious throughout. A spirit of love and confidence was manifested in all the meetings. Pastor J. H. Woods was unanimously re-elected president of the conference for the coming year. A baptismal service was held, and fourteen were baptized. Brother W. G. Brittain was ordained to the gospel ministry.
I have enjoyed more than I can express the privilege of meeting the kind-hearted, hospitable believers in this conference. Nowhere have I met a more consecrated, loyal conference of believers in the message than here, or those who were more active and earnest in their efforts to extend the work.

Hunan, China

By J. J. Westrup

J. J. WESTRUP
I HAVE just visited Chang-sha, Hunan. No doubt many are anxious to know what will be the result of the recent uprising at this place. When I stepped on board the boat at Hankow, I found two hundred soldiers going to Chang-sha. There they were to join the local militia, divide into three companies, and march to three different cities, in each of which there was a small Boxer uprising. I was told that the uprisings in these cities were not serious, the soldiers already having them well under control. However, neither the viceroy nor the present governor of Hunan is disposed to run any risks. Indeed, they have need to be careful, as word has come from Szechuen, Hupeh, and Hunan that the rebellious element is watching closely the outcome in Hunan. If the uprising there had been successful, the rebellion would no doubt have spread to other provinces.
Everything seemed quiet and peaceful on our arrival in Chang-sha, although no one can tell how permanent this peace may be. A missionary told me that for the last two or three years every foreigner has, unknown to himself, been followed by a soldier at a distance. Two weeks ago this precaution was discontinued, showing that the governor feels confident that there is now no danger to foreigners.
Our compound in Chang-sha had been repaired, at a cost to the owner of about one hundred dollars. For a small outlay our evangelist had also had the seats, tables, pulpit, and railing repaired. The greatest loss was the destroying of our medicines and medical implements. The owner of the compound felt disposed to sell it, so as to compel us to move out; but after I had talked with him, he decided to allow us to stay. We thank God that we are permitted to keep this compound at this critical time, when it would be impossible to rent another.
We had blessed meetings. The Spirit of God came near, and we were all encouraged and strengthened. I greatly missed Brother and Sister P. J. Laird, and felt sorry that they were unable to remain with the dear brethren here through this critical experience. These workers have done efficient and faithful work in Chang-sha, which Brother Huang and two colporteurs are heroically endeavoring to maintain and carry forward. I am planning to get Elder N. P. Keh to go with me to Chang-sha soon, to hold a two weeks' meeting, and baptize those who are ready for this ordinance.

Editorial

Ecuador.—The tide is turning in our favor. We feel we must draw nearer to God in order to make the most of every advantage offered. Pray for the work and workers here. W. W. Wheeler.
India.—Though the task of giving this message to India's millions in this generation seems a Herculean undertaking with our limited force, yet my confidence in its accomplishment is much greater to-day than it was during my first year in the country. God is at work, as well as our little force; and when the fulness of time comes, the thing will be done, and we shall be surprised to learn what agencies God has brought to bear in fulfilling his purpose. H. C. Menkel, M. D.
West German Union.—Everywhere doors open before us. Fields that seemed hard to enter years ago are now open. Rulers have been influenced to give our people liberty to live and preach the truth in their realms. Truly the Lord is going before. Meetings in Catholic sections are well attended, and generally more results are reaped among Catholics than among Protestants. There is a real longing for the truth in countries where the Papacy has ruled these many years. May the Lord help us to do our utmost to reach these souls before it is too late. J. H. Schilling.
New Guinea.—Through the goodness of God, we are able to send greetings from a church in New Guinea—six members, of three nationalities, British, Rarotongan, and Fijian. We look forward to the time when we can have New Guinea people enrolled in our church-book, as well as in the great volume of the book of life. What could appeal to us more than their gross ignorance and need of light? What but the gospel can deliver these people from their abject slavery to the will of the sorcerer? They have no gods of wood and stone; but the fear of devils and evil spirits is their religion. Hundreds of maimed or deformed babes are thrown out, when born, to perish in the bush. What a contrast we find among these people to the joy and hope of the third angel's message! Truly we should be thankful for our privileges, and show our gratitude by greater zeal and self-sacrifice and consecration. S. W. Carr.
The Portuguese Republic.—My wife and I are of good courage. The message is from God; the Word is his; we belong to him; so why should we not be of good courage? The call of one of our young men to work in Algeria leaves us with only our colporteur, until Brother Mayer arrives from Switzerland. We have been thinking that when he gets into the work, if only we could have five good canvassers, we could warn Portugal in a short time. But there are our islands with a million people, and Portuguese Africa with fourteen millions, more or less. The believers here greet our brethren in all the world. C. E. Rentro.

Preach the Message

By W. A. S.

THE key-note of the advent message is the soon coming of the Lord. And the gospel for these last days is the definite advent message.
It is not the advent truths and the gospel. The advent message itself is the gospel. No one can truly present these advent truths without presenting in them the saving grace of Christ. And in the full presentation of the gospel of Christ's saving grace for this hour is in the presentation of the threefold message of Revelation 14.
The Holy Spirit gives power to the preaching of the message for this time, and witnesses to it in the conversion and salvation of souls.
Just before the manifestation of Christ at his first advent, came John the Baptist, preaching the fulfilment of the sure word of prophecy in that day. It “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” He preached the fulfilling word, and hearts were converted, and multitudes “were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”
On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up crying, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet;” and as he presented the gospel of Christ in fulfilling prophecy, the Holy Spirit bore witness in convicting hearts. So in every sermon recorded of the apostolic times; as Paul says, they declared the “glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us,”
And now again the “glad tidings,” the gospel of the grace of God, is summed up in a definite message of fulfilling prophecy. The gospel message for the last days is described by Inspiration:—
“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth.”
And the preaching of the everlasting gospel, as the prophet heard it, was the thrilling declaration to men that the hour of God's judgment is come; that men should worship the God that made heaven and earth; that Babylon is fallen; that if any man worship the beast and its image, and receive the mark of apostasy, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.
This is hardly an outline of the gospel theme according to popular ideas. But the Word of God declares that when the last days come, the preaching of the everlasting gospel is the preaching of this very message.
This does not mean that we are to present these solemn, commanding truths, and then preach some gospel. These solemn truths are the gospel, and are to be presented with the grace of Christ as the savor and the fiber and the vitalizing power in them all. These stern messages are the voice of Jesus crying to men in our time, Repent ye, and believe the gospel.
And truly we need the grace of Christ in fullest measure, who carry such messages, in order that the tone of the Saviour's invitation to the sinner may be in the stern warnings of the prophetic Word. We have not merely to show men what is truth, but also the way of making that truth the saving power in the personal life. Many a time have we who speak or teach to ask ourselves, as we sit down after presenting some line of advent truth, “Did I speak it so that every sinner in the company heard the invitation to surrender the heart to the Lord Jesus? and was the way of salvation made plain for wandering feet?”
It is not enough to tell men what to do, without telling them how to do. And all the time the definite message, truly borne, is preaching to men the what and the how—the way to walk and the power by which to walk. There is justification by faith in the message of Daniel 2, and the power of the Holy Spirit in Revelation 12 and 13. The definite advent message—straight and clear and sharply defined, with no apologies for it—has in it the love of Christ, and conversion, and all the glorious truths of justification by faith, and the power of the Holy Spirit. These themes are not side specialties; and men have never done themselves or the people the best service by making specialties of them, as if the gospel were made up on the department system.
The whole gospel of the grace of God is summed up in the definite third angel's message, and the key-note of it all is the soon coming of Christ. God give us grace to cry the message everywhere.
W. A. S.

Will Rome Rule America?

By F. M. W.

This question is agitating many thoughtful minds at the present time. The growth of Roman Catholic influence, and its increasing power in the political, social, and industrial life of the nation, are leading many to ask, What will be the outcome of the future?
The November number of Current Literature, in discussing this problem of the Catholic Church, says:—
Roman Catholicism in America is at high tide. New York is now the strongest Catholic city in the world, and the United States has become the fourth Catholic power, being surpassed only by France, Austria, and Italy.
Catholics themselves are alive to the glorious prospect which they feel this country presents. Cardinal Vincenzo Vanutelli, the Pope’s personal representative at the Eucharistic Congress, said this of the United States:—
The Holy Father is coming more and more to regard your wonderful United States as the favorite daughter of the church. Catholicism has here made more wonderful strides than anywhere else in the world. Your bishops, priests, and teachers have built up a magnificent church organization. Under your government of freedom and personal liberty, the church and its individuals have prospered splendidly. Your country is amazing to a stranger; but no less amazing is its Catholicism.
Speaking of the growth of Catholicism in the United States, and particularly of its progress in New York City, Father Bernard Vaughan said, in a recent sermon in New York City:—
You yourselves are witnesses of the matchless, the miraculous growth and output of the church. Take New York. Only two hundred years ago—two hundred members of Christ’s Church, one priest, and one poor little chapel, on whose ground I stood and prayed last night; and to-day an archbishop, with two auxiliary bishops, twenty-eight hundred priests, three thousand churches and chapels, something like six hundred or seven hundred schools, and a population growing to the limit of four million—in the original limits of one priest’s entire district.
Try to restrain the growth of the church. You may do it when you have held up the falls of Niagara; when, with an extinguisher, you have quenched the forest fire; when, my brethren, with a little shovel you have flung back the mountain avalanche. She goes on for ever and ever, with the charmed life, not of the fabulous talisman, but of the glowing promise of her Founder. Not even the gates of hell can prevail against her.
Many leading Protestants view with alarm this wonderful growth of Rome, and see in it a menace to future liberty. Before the Pittsburg Conference of Free Methodists, Bishop Walter Sellew recently expressed himself thus with reference to this subject:—
My heart is greatly grieved at spiritual conditions as they exist generally in the world. I am not at all optimistic. I have tried to be, but I can not be. The spirit of Protestantism in the United States is in decay. At the Catholic Eucharistic Conference of the world, held recently in Montreal, three hundred thousand persons slept out-of-doors. Protestantism is dying out, and will soon be a thing of the past. At the World’s Missionary Convention held at Edinburgh, one prominent man said that in ten years from now delegates from the Catholic Church would have seats in our missionary conventions, and would be welcome. No one had backbone enough to oppose the idea except a few, who weakly inserted ‘noes.’
Conversely, there are to be found leading Protestants who scout the idea of Catholic growth, and criticize unsparingly the claim of Rome that she has accomplished so much for the countries which she has controlled. Recently the Presbyterian Ministers’ Association of New York City severely criticized the statements of Father Vaughan, and in a resolution passed in protest, declared:—
We would cite as samples of Roman Catholic influence in elevating countries where that church has long had absolute domination, the conditions in Spain and France, in the South American nations, and in Italy, until Mazzini and Victor Emmanuel secured civil liberty, and ushered in the modern and better Italy by fighting and triumphing over the papal power. Our nation was born a Protestant nation, several of the original thirteen colonies being exclusively Protestant, and it has attained its present high place as a Protestant nation; and until the Roman Church can cite some nation that has arisen under Catholicism as rapidly and gloriously as ours, Father Vaughan’s pronunciamento needs no refutation.
The severest criticism of the Roman Catholic contention of its beneficent influence in Catholic countries is found in a recent sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Charles F. Aked, a prominent Baptist minister of New York City:—
The facts of history attest such things as these: The priest has been a curse in every country in which the priest has enjoyed special privilege and power. Rome is the most relentless foe of freedom and democracy the world has ever seen. Rome is a spiritual tyranny. It secures a lordship over the conscience, and it degrades the intellect while enslaving it. It weakens the sense of personal responsibility, and in this way, so far from contributing to the prosperity and greatness of a nation, it does injury to the commonwealth by reducing individual initiative, self-reliance, and will.
The American people have established and maintained, under circumstances of stress and strain and unheard-of difficulties bequeathed by nations of the Old World, a stable government; and wherever our flag is flying, is the home of freedom. This is our inheritance from the men whom Rome would have strangled or roasted alive. Kings and priests, said the Quaker poet, to liberty and God are false in turn. We are proud of the Protestant blood that is in our veins, and the Protestant spirit which moves within us. Plymouth Rock stands for more in the life of this nation than the Roman Catholic Church.
This criticism is a just one, and accords fully with the conditions which exist in countries under Roman influence.
We are not left to idle speculation as to the part Romanism will play in the future of the United States and of Europe. The prophecy of God’s Word, as recorded in Revelation 13, plainly declares there will come a time when, in the New World as well as in the Old, the spirit of Romanism will be the chief controlling factor in the destinies of men. There will come a time when Protestantism will so far depart from the glorious principles which brought it into existence, that it will reach forth its hand to grasp the hand of Romanism. Under this twofold union the United States of America, which for the last twelve decades has held before all the nations of the world the beacon-light of liberty, will turn its back upon its past experience, repudiate the principles for which it has fought and bled, declare that stable government without church domination is a failure, and bow in servile obedience to the papal hierarchy. This is the prediction of the prophetic Word.
That the tide has already strongly set in toward the accomplishment of this result, many thoughtful observers in every quarter are recognizing. Before the die is cast, before the union is consummated, before the United States shall take the final steps in the repudiation of right principles, let us seek, so far as our influence shall extend, by voice and pen, and godly, earnest living, to reveal to our fellow men the way of truth. If we can not withstand the overwhelming tide, we may serve to check for a little time its progress, and may warn our fellows, so that some of them shall see and recognize the right, and thus escape the disaster which will inevitably follow in the wake of the rejection of God and his truth. F. M. W.

Doing Business for the Lord

By William Ambrose Spicer

Some months ago a business man—not a member of our church—made inquiries regarding the transportation and support of workers in Asia and Africa. Estimates were submitted by the Mission Board. In making a definite proposition, the brother wrote: “It is a pleasure to use the means the Lord has given us to send the message of salvation to benighted souls.” And he undertook a program calling for over twenty-five hundred dollars the first year, and a large amount yearly. Truly that is doing business for the Lord. The business gift, consecrated to the cause of Christ, is an important factor in his work. The real business of this whole denomination ought to be to finish this work.
W. A. S.

Should Sunday Aviation Be Prohibited by Law?

By C. M. S.

SINCE the declaration of the executive that the aviators at Baltimore must not fly on Sunday, many have been wondering how far the state may rightfully go in enforcing an ordinance of the church.
The keeping of a sabbath is an ordinance of the church, an act of religion, an act of worship; and Americans have a right to ask whether the state is justly empowered to enforce religion, or worship, upon the people. The constitution of the State—and if we wish to go further, the Constitution of the United States—gives us ample warrant for questioning the right of any official to enforce religion.
The American basis of government is this: The complete separation of the functions of religion and civil law, not in disparagement of religion, not in defiance to the state, but because the lessons of history demonstrate the hollow mockery and the inhuman cruelty of religion enforced by law. In speaking of “religion enforced by law,” we speak necessarily in an accommodated sense; for there is no such thing, in reality, as enforcing religion by law. All that is possible is to enforce the outward forms, the ceremonies, the rituals, the hollow shell, with the living substance gone. Religion is an affair of the heart and soul, and is not subject to the caprice of legislation.
The problem which America was set to demonstrate to the world was that a nation could exist and prosper, with religion free from governmental control. For more than a century and a quarter, America has gone on demonstrating her solution of that problem. Never was the church so free, and never was a nation so prosperous. With the problem solved, are we ready to take up the thankless burdens of a state-church régime, to put on again the outgrown garments which even Latin Europe is summoning courage to cast aside?
It is a principle of American jurisprudence that the powers not delegated to the government are retained by the people. Who can say that the people have ever delegated to the legislature, the governor, or the president the authority to take from them one seventh of their time, and dedicate it to religion? It is true that man is required by his Maker to keep the Sabbath; but nowhere in the divine Book is there a record that God has ever commissioned any civil official to enforce that requirement. Religion has to do with the personal relations between man and his God. When the state steps in between the two, it has presumed to act without warrant either of divine law or human justice. When the state attempts to compel the individual to be religious, it strikes an awful blow at the most vital principle of true religion. Acceptable worship must be the voluntary, spontaneous outflow of the human heart. Law can no more compel true worship than it can compel the flowers to take on colors, or the sun to give us warmth.

Will the Invasion Go On?

If the state can constitutionally compel us to keep Sabbath, what religious ceremony or ordinance is there which it can not enforce upon us? We have a right to take “alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.” The same government which can say that the people must keep Sabbath can say to us that we must also be baptized, and prescribe which manner of baptism is legal, and which illegal. Once open the door to the enforcement of any religious ceremony, and we have no guaranty of immunity from that system of state-churchism that invades the rights of every individual, and dictates the religion of all. This country had enough of that during its colonial period; and the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States was designed forever to estop the interference of the government in the religion of the people. The Old World is getting enough of that régime, and the people are rising in their might to overthrow the system.

Unnecessary to the Interests of Religion

No religious system has ever helped any people when the tenets of that system were made compulsory. An attempt to force belief can only result in falsehood and hypocrisy on the one hand and martyrdom on the other; and it is invariably and necessarily the best and most substantial element in the community that accepts martyrdom. The unprincipled, the weak and vacillating, will profess anything to escape punishment. Those who have true nobility of character, whose religion is truly an affair of the heart, will submit to torture and death rather than yield their principles, and profess to believe what they do not believe. It is not difficult to see, therefore, that whenever a nation or a state has enforced religious practices under pains and penalties, it has become a persecutor of its best citizens. When it has taken the lives of such, it has robbed itself of the best it had, and thereby increased its proportion of the morally weak and untrue and vicious.
He who believes in his soul that Sunday is the Sabbath of Jehovah should keep it; but if the state were to enforce everything a man ought to do in the matter of religion, we would be right back again in the days of Colonial New England, in the days of the Covenanters, in the days of medieval Rome, when the state and the church were one, and when the anathema of the church was equivalent to a death warrant from the state.

Sunday and the Airman

If the Baltimore aviators believe that Sunday is the Sabbath, and desire to keep it, there is no power on earth that can or would prevent their doing so. If they have no such belief, or if, having it, they still do not care to worship or rest upon the day, it is still no legitimate affair of the state. The individual must answer to God for the way he treats the Sabbath. The interference of the state only complicates, and never can help, matters. The state may compel a balloon to rest on Sunday; but it never can compel the balloonist to believe in the institution or keep it in the spirit of true obedience, if he does not have it in his heart. And if he does have it in his heart, there is no more need of a human law to compel him to keep it than there is of a law to compel a child to love its mother.

Must Airmen Alone Keep Sunday?

A question must arise in the minds of every thinking individual when he contemplates the governor’s prohibition of the navigation of the aerial sea on Sunday, and that is: Why are the airmen alone singled out for distinction and compulsion in this matter? Is it more sinful, or criminal, to navigate the air on Sunday than to navigate the water? Does the governor’s prohibition extend also to marine vessels, and place a ban upon their sailing from the ports of Maryland on Sunday? Is it more criminal to sail through the air on Sunday than to drive a screaming locomotive with its train of cars, or a tooting automobile with its load of pleasure-seekers, over the land of the State? If these are permitted to operate, by what principle of justice or equity are the airmen singled out, and compelled to lie quietly in their hangars on Sunday? It looks to a lay member like a most striking example of class legislation, or of class application of an obsolete and worse than useless law.
That system of so-called religion which, knowing its own weakness and worthlessness, flees to the state for that protection and power which it has no reason to expect from God, declares itself, in the very asking, unworthy of the favor which it demands.
We are not attacking law; but we do declare it possible for the legislative branch of the government to step outside its legitimate jurisdiction, and in so doing to become a trespasser upon the rights of both God and man. It does this whenever it enters the realm of religion.
The Sabbath is a divine institution, and all should keep it; but the law of Jehovah is sufficient. If men will not keep it on that basis, they can not truly keep it on any other basis, and human laws to enforce it are an insult to both God and man.
The temporal affairs of men are the legitimate concerns of government. The spiritual affairs of men are between them and God, and the state should leave them there. Said our Saviour: “Render to Cæsar [government] the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Ulysses S. Grant was only reiterating this command of our Lord’s when he said: “Keep the church and the state forever separate.” To neither of those statements do we give heed when we permit the state to dictate a single religious requirement.
C. M. S.

A Living Experience

By F. M. W.

WE serve a living God, infinite in power, existing from the endless ages of eternity. He declares, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore.” Our Saviour is not in Joseph’s new tomb, but he sits to-day at the right hand of heavenly power, where he ever liveth to make intercession for us. “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.” And to this great foundation truth, the apostle adds: “For we have not an high priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace.” Joined to God’s infinite power is his infinite compassion for the human family. He is a Father great in resources, and infinite in love.
We have a living Word, emanating from the great Source of power. The Word of God partakes of the nature of its divine Author. “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the Word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” This Word to-day will work effectually in those who believe. He is faithful that has promised. He speaks, and to the trusting soul it will come to pass.
We may have a living experience. We serve a living God; we possess a living Word; our experience should have in it the breath and vitality of heaven. Many to-day are trusting to a dead experience. They feed upon the old-time blessing; they recount how God met with them at their conversion, ignoring or failing to improve the opportunities of meeting with him to-day. The measure of yesterday should not be the gage for to-day. To-day we should see more in God than ever before; to-day we should know that our sins are forgiven, and that God accepts us in the Beloved. To-day his gospel should be an active principle in our lives, a working element, transforming our hearts and natures, and revealing in us the character of the life of Christ.
Let us realize to-day that we serve a living God, and that we possess a living Word; and let us have in our daily lives a living Christian experience.
F. M. W.

Moving-Talking Pictures

ONE of the latest works of inventive genius has been the development and perfection of moving pictures. Added to this now comes the announcement that moving-talking pictures will soon be in general use throughout the country. If these inventions were utilized alone for the cause of truth and righteousness, every advance step would be cause for rejoicing. But when it is remembered that for the most part they become agents of evil, as the present use of moving pictures demonstrates, it is a cause for regret that their potency for evil will be increased.
Unquestionably one of the most powerful and effective agents in the demoralization of youth and children, and of adults as well, is found in moving-picture shows. Allied with impure and suggestive literature, the two become deadly enemies to clean morals, though there may be exhibitions of pictures which do not fall under this ban. It is often argued that the theater presents many high-class and instructive plays; but it is safe to conclude that the average five-cent picture show is as fully demoralizing, if not more so, than the average theater. Both will be avoided by the humble, sincere follower of the Lord Jesus.

The Mission of the United States

UNDER this head the United Presbyterian of August 4 speaks of the unique position of the United States among the nations of earth, and of the work it was set to do:—
The United States stands alone as no other nation does, and has opportunities given to none other. It therefore has a peculiar, special mission. By this we mean that God has raised it up to a peculiar position among the nations, and has given to it a power and an opportunity to be a great blessing to all the world. To use this opportunity and exercise this power for the betterment of the world, is its mission. In the fulfilment of this mission will be found its greatness. For greatness is not in wealth, nor in political power, but in the working power for the help and uplift of others. The United States is a new nation on a new soil and on new principles. In an age of tyranny and wrong a multitude of people sought freedom in escape to a new land. They founded a nation on the broad principles of personal freedom and equality, of intelligence and Christian faith. The nation grew without rival neighbors. There were no inheritances of ill will, no traditions of enmity, no causes of friction beyond what are common to the imperfections of human nature. There was no one to dispute its right to its territory, or to lay a hand on its growth in wealth and power. It is a nation founded on the brotherhood of equal rights and the supremacy of law. . . . Unless we make an exception of the war with Mexico, it has waged no war of conquest.
This statement of the position of the United States among the governments of men is fully borne out by the statement of the prophetic Word. Would that it might continue its mission of pointing the way to greater light and liberty! But the prophet says, in Rev. 13: 11, that there will come a denial of its lamblike principles; and, turning its back upon the goal for which it started, it will make an alliance with evil. It is then that it will speak with dragon voice, and seek to compel men to worship the principles of evil from which in its earlier history it sought to free men. We may not hope to save the nation from taking the fateful step, but we may be the means in God's hands of saving individuals. Character only will survive the wreck of time. Earthly governments will pass away; but by the grace of Christ, individuals may be saved forever. The need of the world to-day is a personal Saviour.

Note and Comment

In a report read at the opening session of the twenty-second annual meeting of the Lord's Day Alliance of the United States, Dr. Geo. W. Grannis, secretary of the Alliance, bitterly arraigned the society leaders of Washington as sabbath-breakers. The President and Mrs. Taft, with other persons prominent in official circles, were named in a list of those who had desecrated the sabbath by attending or giving social functions on Sunday. The report stated that “if the 15,000,000 or more Christians who had indorsed the work of the Lord’s Day Alliance would give as much of their money for the prosecution of the work of maintaining a Lord’s day as the 100,000 Seventh-day Adventists give to destroy it, they could more successfully combat the interests working against them.”

Death With Progress

THIS is an age of progress and advancement. Great achievements have been made in every line of science and industry. The child of to-day can build upon the knowledge of the father of yesterday. The progress made in science, in literature, in art, and in general civilization, place the people of this generation far in advance of all their predecessors; and yet it is a question for serious consideration if this advancement is of real advantage after all. In the wake of civilization have followed many unfavorable conditions, unknown to the age of greater simplicity of living. Speaking of this, the British Medical Journal says:— In humanitarian circles it is customary to speak of civilization as a disease, and to compare the noble savage and the effete citizen in a manner greatly to the latter's disadvantage from the point of view of health and constitution. Facts do not lend unqualified support to this kind of idealism, yet it must be confessed that the list of industrial diseases, already formidable, is a constantly growing one, and that every new invention carries attendant evils in its train. Among distinctively modern diseases may be instanced the poisoning produced by the fumes of calcium carbid, or acetylene; the headache, dyspepsia, cardiac failure, and sensory disturbances traceable to the manufacture and use of aniline dyes; the frothing of the blood, known as caisson disease, which follows too rapid decompression in workers at the foundations of bridges; the functional neurosis, known as telegraphists' cramp, resulting from the use of the Morse key, and the numerous affections of the skin, lungs, digestive tract, and eyes, due to irritation by organic or inorganic dusts of industrial origin. Among the last-named special mention may be made of “shoddy fever,” caused by the dust rising from the pulverization of wool containing rags. A modern danger par excellence is that of electrocution by contact with live wires, to which innumerable workers are daily and hourly exposed.
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