p. 15 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 45. (11/14/1895)

Earlier text: International Sabbath School Lessons

A GOOD BIBLE DICTIONARY FOR GENERAL USE.

With Engravings, Maps, and Tables. Revised and Enlarged Edition.

This book contains over 700 pages, is fully illustrated, many of the cuts being full page, and on enameled paper. It also has an excellent set of maps, explanations of the physical features of Palestine, chronological index to the Bible compiled by Joseph Angus, D. D., table of Hebrew months and festivals, tables of weights, measures, and money, etc. It is bound in strong cloth, and is ornamented with neat back and side titles. The workmanship is exceptionally good all through, and we believe it to be one of the BEST EDITIONS FOR THE MONEY ever published. We invite the trade to correspond with us in regard to this dictionary. Price reduced from $2.00 to $1.50.

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LOW PRICED DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE

Comprising its Antiquities, Geography, Biography, and Natural History.

BY WILLIAM SMITH, LL.D.

This book contains 467 pages of rather small but clear type, printed on a fair quality of paper, and is bound in paper sides with leather back and ornamented back title. It has the same contents as the latest London edition, which sells for $3.00, and is just the thing for those who are looking for a small-sized, low-priced Bible Dictionary. Price 85 Cents.

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THE JUDGMENT

By John Nevins Andrews

By the late J. N. ANDREWS

The Events of the Judgment and their Order. Following are principal chapter headings: The Investigative Judgment, Examination of the Books, God the Father the Judge, Offices of Christ, Messages to the World, The Sanctuary in Heaven, The Crowning of Christ, The Executive Judgment, The Saints Sitting in Judgment. Bible Student’s Library No. 55. 136 pages. Paper covers. Price, 15 cents.

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

Kansas City, Mo., New York City, N. Y.

Christ in Human Flesh

Christ in Human Flesh.—“Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus is come in the flesh is not of God.” It does not say that every spirit that openly denies it, but every spirit that does not confess it. Bearing in mind what is meant by confession, we learn from these verses in John’s epistle that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a fact, whether we confess it or not. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” John 1:14. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.” Heb. 2:14. He, the Son of God, coming in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, “condemned sin in the flesh.” Rom. 8:3.

Catholic Church Claims Right to Enforce Obedience

THE Catholic Times gives prominence to a report of an address on “Church and State,” in which it is stated:—

“The church has the right of enforcing obedience from its children, and of chastising rebellious subjects by spiritual or bodily penalties, either for their own amendment or for the example and preservation of others.”

This is a frank avowal of the methods of the Inquisition, which is just as much alive as it ever was. It is only slumbering. The church of Christ can only urge obedience to God, and can never enforce obedience. Enforced obedience is no obedience, but only hollow mockery.

What to Expect.

The city council of El Reno, Okla., not long since, repealed the ordinance closing the saloons at 12 o’clock at night, and passed an ordinance prohibiting the Salvation Army from appearing on the streets with martial music. This makes it a crime for Salvationists to prosecute their work, while liquor men are unhindered. Well, this is just what we may expect when those who profess the religion of Christ appeal for aid to the civil law. It makes religion a shuttlecock of politics, and the churches or religious bodies who enter the political field have no reason to find fault, if their support proves a broken reed. If they would depend upon Christ, in whom is all power, he would never fail them.

Christ in the Flesh

“Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.” 1 John 4: 2, 3. Confession means, speaking the same thing; acknowledging that which is said; agreeing together. The confession of sin is the acknowledgment of sin that has been pointed out. The Holy Spirit comes as a convictor of sin, and says, “You have sinned in this thing,” and we confess our sin when we speak the same thing, and say, “Yes; that is true.” “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confession, therefore, means the acknowledging of what has been made known to us.

Sunday Observance in Australia.

The Sunday-law movement is coming up in Australia in various ways. The Lord’s Day Observance Society is watching the Bible Echo Publishing House (a Seventh-day Adventist institution), and recently presented a petition to the Parliament for more stringent Sunday laws. A deputation from the Council of the Churches waited on the chief secretary of the province, asking that Sunday trading be prohibited. Another deputation from the Presbyterian Church Assembly waited on the minister of education, praying that religious instruction be given in the state schools. And all three of these efforts were made in one day, Sept. 4, 1895. The Victorian Parliament is also tinkering with the Factory Act.

Sunday Closing Again Unmasked.

By Editor

The position that we have maintained that Sunday saloon closing is not a temperance movement, nor a sanitary measure, nor a civil policy of any kind, but is solely a step in the line of enforced Sunday observance, has received additional affirmation. In a recent address advocating a state Sunday law, Rev. Dr. Dille, of San Francisco, said: “By way of parenthesis I will here say that we will never close up the Sunday saloon except by a state Sunday law. We do not admit the principle of local option, for local option does not work.” The Sunday closing of saloons has been put forward by local societies on various “civil” pretexts, while the State Sabbath Association has urged it as a stepping-stone to general Sunday closing. But Dr. Dille’s position would reverse the program, and place the Sunday saloon closing as the highest point to be gained in the exaltation of the Sunday institution. But in all these propositions there is no suggestion to close the saloon (bad as it is from every point of view) on any day but Sunday. The Sunday closing of saloons, in and of itself, seems to be sadly entangled in a labyrinth of confused ideas suggested by its advocates. But a movement so full of false pretenses must necessarily be fraught with a jumble of inconsistencies.

The Impotency of Human Law in Moral Reform.

In Elder Haskett’s article, “Religious and Educational Interests of South Africa,” it will be noticed that in the provinces of Cape Colony and Natal “strenuous efforts are made yearly to render the Sunday laws more oppressive.” He also says that these laws are “more oppressive” in the South African Republic than in any of the colonies. Yet of Johannesburg, the principal city and business center of this republic, he said in a previous article, that,—

“The very air is impregnated with vice. I was told that over 100 persons, officers and others, had come there in the interest of the Salvation Army, but had become bewildered with the prospect of getting rich, and are now among the vilest. The manner of doing business is a test of a man’s integrity if he would succeed.”

The inefficiency of Sunday laws to promote moral reform has here a striking illustration, for the Sunday law of this South African Republic is so stringent in some points that the one who sells a pound of sugar or a loaf of bread is subject to a fine of $25 and imprisonment. But apostate Christianity seems to have transferred its confidence to the civil-law remedy for existing evils, and the more this nostrum fails the more is the determination to continue to administer it in ever-increasing doses. It is time that professed followers of Christ were learning that “vain is the help of man,” and that “through God we will do valiantly,” and through him only. The law of God is the only efficient moral law, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only effectual means of moral reform.

RELIGION AND POLITICS.

Religion, or perhaps we would better say religious partisanship and prejudice, is rapidly coming to the front in the politics of the United States. This is a wide departure from the original design in the institution of our government, as shown in the constitutional provision that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” The outlook is ominous, and shows that the principle of church and state separation, which our fathers intended should be perpetuated, is fast dying out. The forces which have contributed largely to this condition are mainly the Roman Catholic Church, the National Reform Association, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the American Sabbath Union, the Prohibition party, the Christian Endeavor Society in its later developments, and the American Protective Association. The attitude of the Roman Church has always been that of a religious body with a political aim, and the A. P. A. is a political body whose main purpose is opposition to the political ambition of that church. This opposition of necessity brings religion into politics, by its direct controversy with a religious body.

The other organizations here enumerated are practically united in purpose, if not always in direct interest; and that purpose is, through what is known as the “Christian citizenship” movement, to make the civil government a means of advancing the interests of religion. And the assumption that it is the duty of the civil government to further the interests of religion is based mainly on the famous Supreme Court decision that “this is a Christian nation.” These combined bodies comprise the larger part of the so-called Protestant churches, and their first effort at controlling the civil government—state, national, and municipal—is centered on the one object of enforced Sunday observance. In this movement, at least, they will also have the concurrence of the Roman Church, and success here will establish a strong prestige for further governmental support of religious measures.

That considerable confidence is already felt in the ability of these religio-political bodies to carry out their purposes is manifested by comments of the press. For instance, we have this item from the American Sentinel, of New York:—

“It will be remembered that it was charged some months ago that President Cleveland went fishing on Sunday. This was denied by his private secretary, who explained that Mr. Cleveland only started Sunday night, but did not actually fish on Sunday. But some people are not satisfied with this, and the Mail and Express, of this city, thinks that Mr. Cleveland ought to clear his skirts of the fishing charge before he thinks seriously of a third term.”

Then an A. P. A. paper of this state asserts that that association threw its vote in the last state election for a certain candidate for lieutenant governor because his opponent’s wife was a Catholic; also that they voted for the present governor because his opponent would not discharge his Catholic typewriter. In one case they voted for a Republican, and in the other for a Democrat, in order to oppose the political aspirations of the Catholics,—in other words, on religious grounds. And now that the Republican lieutenant governor is dead, and the governor has appointed to the vacancy the man whom the A. P. A. claim to have defeated, the paper above cited intimates that retaliation on the part of the association may be expected in case the governor runs for office again.

To this we add a comment of the Sacramento Bee, showing that the appearance of religious zeal and religious prejudice are coming to be recognized as political influences of no small moment:—

“It is much to be regretted that the religious beliefs of candidates for high office should become controlling considerations in the minds of any considerable number of voters, but at the present this seems to be the case. It is going to be interesting to note what effect this is going to have in the national election next year.”

The Victory That Overcometh the World

“THIS is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4.