A GREAT missionary is simply a straight missionary. If you will make a study of your own mother for a week, you will probably learn the lesson of it. You will observe many things which need not here be dwelt upon—some faults among the shining qualities, no doubt—but surely these:—
In her character of mother she “stands by” you. The neighbors may be down on you; the teacher may affirm that you have no sense; the doctor may advise her that she can not raise you; you may not grow; you may grow smaller; you may tax her patience; you may take all her time; the other children may repudiate you; your father may refuse to look at you; she may even wish that you had not been born; she might think it a mercy if you should be taken away. But while there is a breath of life in you, she “stays.” She will not stoop her motherhood to have the company of those who despise you or who would hinder you; she will not be driven by any torment to choose an evil thing for you because there is a greater evil threatened and the good is scarce and hard; you are Piedmont, and she is the Matterhorn.
So the great missionary sticks to the thing for which he has been sent. He never shirks; he never studies the wind; he never trains with enemies of his mission, nor modulates his message to please the indifferent; he never gets rich; he is never popular with the dominant sinners, great or small; he never abandons a series of meetings because the crowd does not “catch on;” he keeps no scrap-book of what the papers say about him.
He sees straight; he never tries to look two ways at once; his eye is single and his whole body is full of light; he sees just as well on election day as on Sunday; he carries no lantern when the sun shines; he dodges nothing; he eats no dirt; he peddles no dish-water.
Many people see more than he does, but he sees straight ahead; he is not afraid of anything in that direction. That is why he never ducks his head.
A fly has 8,000 eyes; its head is, in fact, mostly eyes. Some missionaries are built that way. It is hard to hit a fly.
When the public sentiment gets ready to stone a great missionary, it can find him; he has latitude and longitude; one knows just where to throw to hit him; he never stands edgewise to an enemy for safety. If the enemy is ahead, he meets it face to face; if behind, it has his whole breadth to aim at; if the executive committee kill him, why, then he is what the coroner calls “dead.”
A great missionary goes straight. One whose brain is mostly optic nerve is apt to see too much that he can’t understand—which makes him timid and unsteady, so that he makes crooked paths for himself.
You can’t hoe corn very well and watch the birds; and one who puts his hand to Christian Endeavor and looks back at his party or his popularity, is unfit for the kingdom.
A few straight missionaries now could shake the earth—a few men with nothing to sell, nothing to conceal, nothing to fear.
Of a hundred great race-horses, 50 were bay, 30 were chestnut, 20 were brown; no piebald ever won a great race. Amen.—John G. Woolley, in the Voice.
STERRIE A. WELLMAN
By Sterrie A. Wellman
Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, thou mighty city of the past,
In whom are seen so many marks of time;
Jerusalem, whose kingly glory could not last,
Because beneath the curse of the Divine;
Thou art a sad reminder of thy former self,
When strangers then as now ruled in thy land,
When Roman soldiers, led by lust for pelf,
Marched o’er thy crested hills on every hand.
Dark fell the blot which marked thy glory fade,
Dark on the pages of thy record, where
In ages past the brighter records made
A light of glory ere this blot was there.
And as it fell it shrouded all with gloom,
Till its fair pages seemed one darkened spot,
A place where Christlike glory could not come,
Because, tho offered mercy, they “would not.”
That blot, a crime, a crime which for a day
Robbed earth of her Redeemer and her King;
A crime which made her glory fade away,
Her children doomed for’e’er to wandering.
And now, as o’er the earth they sadly roam,
And journey back and forth from land to land,
A stranger still inhabits their old home,
Which once this Israel held with mighty hand.
O sad and bitter curse, yet great the need;
A nation led by God through trials dark,
Still turned from His voice and would not heed,
While yet of mercy there remained a spark;
A nation which in all its former life
Had seen the hand of God ofttimes displayed,
Still turned unheeding to a greater strife
Against the world’s Redeemer, undismayed!
Jerusalem, thy lot has been a sad one here,
One marked by war, and crime, and deep distress.
Jerusalem, the Saviour shed full many a tear,
Well knowing thou wert doomed to wretchedness.
O city sad, disconsolate, at strife,
Stripped of thy former glories great and grand!
We wait the time when all shall wake to life,
To see the heavenly city nigh at hand.
STERRIE A. WELLMAN
Chatham, Ontario.
A Great Sin
By C. L. Thurgood
If I were called to point out the most alarming sins of to-day—those which are the most deceitful in their influence and the most soul-destroying in their ultimate effects—I would not mention drunkenness, with all its fearful havoc; not gambling, with its crazed victims; nor harlotry, with all its hellish orgies; but the love of money on the part of men, and the love of display on the part of women.—Rev. C. L. Thurgood.
THE TONGUE.—
By F. M. Munson
The tongue of the slanderer is forked like the tongue of a snake, inflicting three wounds at a single thrust; it injures him who speaks; it injures him who hears, and makes him partaker of the sin; it hurts him of whom the slander is spoken. A long tongue has the slanderer; it can reach around the world; a sharp tongue, it pierces the solitude and quiet of the grave. —Rev. F. M. Munson.
THE PERVERTED LAW OF LIFE.
God’s law is the law of life, the channel through which life is imparted to all who are in harmony with God. It is a living law, bearing in all its requirements the life of God to enable every one to whom the law comes to perform its requirements. Therefore he who absolutely submits to God’s law receives through that law the life and power to do or refrain from doing the thing commanded or prohibited. The life of God operates through him for the doing of the law. When God forbade Adam to partake of the forbidden fruit, there was power in the command, if Adam had submitted to it, to refrain from partaking. When God said to Israel, “Go forward,” there was power in the word to carry them through the Red Sea.
It will do no harm to again refresh our minds with testimony from the Word as to the law of life: “For the Word of God is quick [living], and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Heb. 4:12. None but a living agency could do this; and this is the very work the law was set to perform in this world in its present condition.
As in the living law of God is His life, so it carries with it His presence and power. Before that power naught can stand. “He doeth according to His will [His law] in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?” Dan. 4:35. “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.” Ps. 135:6. And He does all this by His holy law, or Word, whether its bearer be angel or man.
To him who is in harmony with the law, the power that is in it works life; for “in the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.” But he who opposes himself to the power of God in that law, invites against himself the power of God. So, while the law is life to the doer, it is death to the transgressor. “The commandment, which was ordained to life,” says Paul, speaking of himself as a sinner, “I found to be unto death.”
The reason why the law works death in any one is not because of any defect in the law. It is in the law’s perversion. In the very nature of the case it must work death to the transgressor. In fact, all evil is perverted good. The straight line perverted becomes crooked. The perfect circle if bent is no longer a circle. So when the perfect law of God is perverted, it works out death. Here are the words of Inspiration upon this point:—
“The commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin [transgression, or perversion, of the law, 1 John 4:3; Rom. 7:7], taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it [the law, or commandment] slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Rom. 7:10-14.
Let us ask some questions, it may bring out more clearly the meaning of the text:—
To what was the law ordained?—“To life.”
What did the sinner find it to be?—“To death.”
What caused the death, or slaying?—“Sin.”
By what did sin slay?—“By it,” the commandment.
What is sin?—“Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4.
When a perversion of a law causes death, what does it prove that law to be?—“Holy, and just, and good.”
Was it then the good that was made death?—No; it was “sin . . . working death.”
What instrument did it use?—“That which is good,” God’s holy law.
What, then, does the law show sin to be?—“Exceeding sinful.”
What do we know of the law?—“The law is spiritual,” life-giving.
Where then is the trouble?—“I am carnal, sold under sin.”
What is the relation of the carnal mind to God and His law?—“The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7.
What then is it to be carnally minded?—“Death.” Verse 6.
All the power of God is in His law. It is the channel through which it flows. If the channel is perverted, the power flows on still. The power of the immense dynamo at the electric power-house flows through the overhead wire for the propulsion of cars. A miscreant cuts the wire. The current flows on. A broken end falls upon a crowd of people, shocking, burning, killing. What a difference in the result: one moment it was propelling people at their pleasure, hastening business, doing work of utility; the next, the same current, through the same wire, is maiming and killing! What is the cause of the difference? In the first instance, it was power acting in a normal way; in the second, it was power acting in an abnormal way, through a perverted channel. In its ordained way it was useful to life. In the perverted way, it was an instrument of death. The miscreant who cut the wire used the good thing, designed to serve humanity, to slay humanity.
The law of gravitation pulls all the bodies on earth or in earth’s atmosphere toward a common center. It is most useful, beneficent, and necessary in preserving the equilibrium of things in general. But there have been instances when this good law was used for the destruction of human life, by casting persons from great heights, dashing them in pieces on rocks beneath. The law of gravitation is good; the evil lies in its perversion.
So God’s law is good, the channel of His life and power, but perverted it means suffering and death to its perverter or transgressor. He who sets his carnal mind, his puny human will, across the normal channel of the working of God’s law invites against himself to his own destruction all the power of God. Awful thought! He is like the man who, taking the electric current, which would bear him home to wife and loved ones, turns it to his own destruction. He is like a person who, having a boat fitted to bear him safely over a river, would overturn it, and use its weight in holding him under the water till drowned. The electric current in the live wire is good; the boat is good; but their perversion is death. So God’s law is good and was ordained to life; its perversion is proved death to the sinner.
Enmity to that law means the perverting of God’s eternal life the moment it enters where the law is perverted. It comes to man direct from God as eternal life; but as soon as it enters the atmosphere of sin or carnality or selfishness, it is perverted, cut off, and becomes death instead.
It is in this sense that the Lord in speaking to the sinner uses the expression, “thy life,” “your life,” “all the days of thy life.” It is the life perverted by sin, the life flowing through a perverted law.
To have the eternal life, it must be continually inflowing. It is not a segment of the great sphere of God’s life cut off. It is not a severed fragment. It is a direct living connection with God, even as the car is connected with the dynamo by the live wire and trolley. It is living connection with God even as the hand is connected with the brain by the nerve. Sever the nerve, and the hand is dead so far as feeling goes. Sever the artery which supplies the hand with blood from the heart, tie it up so that the connection is severed, and the hand withers. So will man separated from the life of God.
But there is more to the story.
“POLITICAL CHRISTIANITY.”
Some one has sent us a marked copy of the Christian Citizen, of Chicago. It is old (December, 1897), but it may not be amiss to notice briefly what it says. One of its articles complains that this paper “stigmatizes” the work being done by the Christian Citizenship League, etc., as “political Christianity.” The Citizen says:—
We were not aware before that there could be but one kind of Christianity. We are sure that the genuine article requires the keeping of the Ten Commandments, one of which is, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” If the SIGNS OF THE TIMES does not know it is misrepresenting its brethren when it charges them with promoting “political Christianity,” it should post up a little or stop posing as an up-to-date religious journal.
If there really is such a thing as “political Christianity,” we want no more of it than the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. We do confess to a strong desire for Christian politics in this nation. Furthermore, while we deplore anything that sounds dogmatic, we regard the Christianity of any man or paper as little short of a sham that stops short of an honest effort to enthrone Christ’s righteousness in the affairs of State.
And we know that there is “but one kind of Christianity,” the Christianity of Jesus Christ, the rule and creed of which is God’s Word, the message of which is the Gospel, the power of which is the Spirit of God, the weapons of which are “not carnal” but spiritual and “mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” The Christianity of Christ is not of the world, even as He is not of the world; and everything that claims to be Christianity7apart from the Christianity of Christ is spurious.
Yes, genuine Christianity not only “requires the keeping of the Ten Commandments,” but it results, it issues, in their keeping, in the life of every one who possesses it. But it does not enforce them by law; because God’s commandments, being spiritual, can not be enforced. They must be implanted in the heart by grace, and are wrought out by “the faith which worketh by love.”
If the methods pursued by the so-called Christian Citizenship Leagues and departments of young people’s societies, are not political rather than Christian, we plead guilty. Political methods aim to correct evils by the ballot, from Tammany Hall up. The Christian Citizenship organizations are endeavoring to do the same thing in the same way. And the Citizen admits this very thing when it says, “We do confess to a strong desire for Christian politics in this nation.” Again, in another article, the Citizen expresses its approval of the first quoted sentiment, and utters the second:—
In this country even more than in England, because of our vast territory, it is desirable that the Christian sentiment should be able to speak concerning social and political questions with a common voice.
But so far as having a powerful influence over the destinies of the nation is concerned, Christians need not wait for such a federation. The National Christian Citizenship League, which is already well under way of organization all over the country, can serve this purpose better than any church federation we are likely to have here for a century. For in this League all Christian patriots can unite, whether they be Catholics or Protestants.
But what is the above method, but political? What is it but a mere compromise of all righteous principles till it dwindles to those held in common by Catholics and Protestants? What is it but the effort to improve things by politics, or, as expressed in the first quotation, “to enthrone Christ’s righteousness in the affairs of State”? If this is not political, what can be?
Now the only way by which “Christ’s righteousness” can be enthroned is by faith. Rom. 3:21, 22; Phil. 3:9. It is put upon and within the lives of only those who die to sin, and believe unto eternal life. And to seek to do this in any other way is of the world, and is therefore political, and is not after Christ. How many times has a municipal council proved false to its trust, by fostering jobbery, and engaging in corrupt legislation at the behest of political rings and wealthy corporations! How many times have the clergy, the churches, and “reform” forces federated together, elected a new council of men pledged to certain “reforms,” but which under the test of gold or politics has proved more corrupt than its predecessor! Here is another quotation from the same editorial page:—
In a republic like ours the individual is himself a part of the State, and becoming a Christian and a member of the church, which is separate from the State, does not make him any less a part of the State. If the State sins, the individuals who compose it sin. If the State disobeys God’s law, the individuals who constitute it disobey God. If the State oppresses the poor, the individuals making up the State oppress the poor. If a city government by neglecting to clean the streets and alleys, provokes an epidemic which sweeps out of the world a number of men, women, and children, the individual citizens are all, in a way, accomplices of murder.
It is to just such erroneous conclusions that “Christian Citizenship” logic leads. The kingdoms or governments of this world are one thing; the kingdom of Christ is another. The man who steps out from the world and becomes a Christian is by the Father “translated into the kingdom of His dear Son.” He is or should be in a higher realm, above the world, above the State. If he renders obedience to its laws, he does it “for the Lord’s sake.” He henceforth is a servant of God, to lift other men up above all lower worldly aims, objects, ambitions. The men who are responsible for government may sin; he will labor to save them from sin. If he does not sin, God does not count him responsible for the sins of others. If he obeys God, he is not responsible for those who disobey. He will warn and entreat for God, and he will witness by word and deed of Christ’s powers to save from sin. But if the government goes to destruction, God will not hold His faithful servant responsible.
If fifty per cent. of the energy now put forth in political effort to do the impossible thing of counting a worldly government—a monstrosity in Christian life, which can neither believe nor be baptized—were put forth to convert souls by preaching the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ, and leave the government to do its simple work of restraining evil and protecting life and property, the fear of God upon the rulers and executives would be a thousand times more potent than any threat of political retirement to private life. When Christ’s professed followers reject Him and His methods, He leaves them to themselves, and they have no strength to meet Satan with his own methods. And repeated and disastrous failure will demonstrate in these days, as in the times of Constantine, that the church in politics and politics in the church are an unmitigated curse. More than this, the mixture of politics and Christianity, of the church and the State, will prove a virulent poison which will utterly corrupt the church, and make her a daughter of great Babylon, and it will utterly destroy the State as a usurper of the peace of God in religious matters. Of all this the record of the Dark Ages is a fearful warning. By how many will it be heeded?
WILL you please explain Acts 16:31? Was there any promise here to any of the jailer’s household, only as they complied with the conditions imposed upon the jailer himself, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”? C. M. E.
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Heb. 11:6. See John 3:16; 6:28, 29; 20:31. His household believed even as did the jailer.
In Eph. 2:15 we read, “Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” What does it mean?
What did Christ abolish?—“The enmity.” What is the enmity?—“Because the carnal mind [mind of the flesh] is enmity against God.” What flesh did Jesus have?—Our flesh. He was the Seed of the woman, partaker of flesh and blood, of the seed of David, sinful flesh. See Gal. 4:4; Heb. 2:14; Rom. 1:3; 8:3. He therefore had naturally the enmity in the flesh. What did this enmity prove to be?—A wall of partition between God and man. What did Jesus do?—“Abolish the enmity.” What did this bring about?—“Peace,” a union of two, making one. In whom was this union perfected?—“In Himself.” How may we, the children of flesh, become one with God? “I [Jesus] in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one.” John 17:23. “Christ liveth in me.” Gal. 2:20. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” Eph. 3:17. When men are so reconciled to God, there is union among the men, whether Jew or Gentile. See 1 Cor. 12:12, 13.
WAS this the baptism of water or of the Holy Ghost?
The baptism of water, the regular baptism of the commission. Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:38. The special manifestation of the Spirit came afterward. See following verse.
WHAT were “the decrees” “delivered” to them “for to keep”?
The decrees, or sentences of the council, mentioned in Acts 15:23–29, giving instruction over various questions raised by Judaizing teachers regarding heathen practises.
DO THE SEVEN STARS represent the ministering servants of the seven churches?
Yes; for God’s angels, together with every true Christian, are ministering servants of the church. The stronger application would doubtless come to the leaders of the churches, as having greater responsibility.
803.—The trying of professed apostles, as mentioned in Rev. 2:2, means no more than this, that the true people of God in the Ephesus state of the church held to the Word of God, and were able by the Spirit to discern the false apostles. There is no reference to anything like judicial trials. The test is Isa. 8:20.
804. “Where Is Paradise? G.”—The Paradise of Scripture—and the Christian knows no other—is named in the Bible but three times, namely, Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7. The last text identifies Paradise with the Garden of Eden, or Garden of God, and also shows that in its midst is the tree of life. By referring to Rev. 22:1, 2 we learn that the tree of life is hard by the throne of God. Paradise is, therefore, in the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2, 4), where God reigns on His throne. It was once on this earth. Genesis 2. It will be again when the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven, as set forth in the last two chapters of Revelation. Paradise, therefore, so far from being the abode of the dead, is most emphatically the abode of the living only.
805.—In reply to “X” on civil governments, their right to exist, and how maintained, see articles in SIGNS of May 26, page 6, “A War of Prayers;” also May 19, page 6, “Is It Right to Go to War?” also May 5, page 8, “Piety and Patriotism,” and “Christianity and War,” and previous numbers.
WHAT battle? Please briefly explain the whole chapter. S. Mc.
The great battle of God, when Satan was cast out of heaven. The space of this department is too limited for an explanation of the entire chapter. Suffice this for this time. The day of the Lord begins before and reaches beyond the 1,000 years of Revelation 20. In the beginning of that day will be the great battle of the nations spoken of in Jer. 25:32, 33; Rev. 16:13, 14, and elsewhere. The wicked will be utterly destroyed. In the close of that great day the Lord shall descend; when His feet touch Mt. Olivet, it shall part and become a great plain, fitted by the touch of Christ’s presence for the site of the holy city. Upon this great plain Jerusalem descends. The wicked raised in the second resurrection, led by Satan, surround the city to capture it, when they are destroyed. Read Revelation, chapters 20 and 21. Events are not always recorded strictly in chronological order.
MINGLE A LITTLE WITH THE “TRAMP” AND “DESTITUTE” CLASS.
By T.
It will pay you if you are rich, and dwelling in an elegant home, or else in the best hotels of the land, to mingle in a common, unattractive sort of way with the growing army of “tramps” and “paupers.” You will find them fairly boiling with discontent and strong sentiments for desperate acts of despoliation. Don’t toss this matter to one side with the stereotyped expression that “these fellows are not worthy of notice;” for they are a factor that will sooner or later be forced upon the world for most serious consideration.
As you mingle among them you will find that many of them are not so bad and vicious at heart as you might expect. Many of them are the victims rather than the creatures of circumstances. They have been educated in a one-sided way. They only know how to do one particular kind of work for a living. They have not been educated to that versatility that enables a man to turn his hand from one thing to another when necessity requires. They lose a job, and that particular thing that they were doing is all they know about. And so they start out for employment, and until they find a place where their particular kind of work is needed, they are pieces of social driftwood. And, drifting about in this way, they soon become confirmed tramps.
But you say, “A man has no business to be educated in such a one-sided way.” You might as well say he had no business to be born with a Roman nose and blue eyes. His whole education has been defective, it is true, but he did not educate himself, hence is not to blame so much as those who have educated him. And, no matter how you view this individual man, he is a factor in society, and should be considered as far as possible from his own standpoint. It is the privilege of all to so consider him to-day; it will be a stern and unavoidable necessity to-morrow.
The great financiers of the country are the ones who have educated the tramp. I do not present this as a charge, but merely state it as a fact. In the unreasonable and senseless rush of the age to pile up wealth, large factories have been built, and boys and girls have been placed at the machines to make just one part of a shoe, or a farm implement, or whatever they were manufacturing. They have been kept at this one thing for month after month and year after year, until they are but little more than a part of the machine they operate. Then the “hard times” come, and the machine has to stop, and these people are thrown out of work.
Then comes the drifting-time. But who is responsible for their one-sided education? They thought they had a steady job, and were all right while they had work of their particular kind. But now they are all at sea. They know not what to do, and if they saw something that was out of their line, but few of them would have confidence to take it up. It is deplorable that men should have such a defective education. And it is much more deplorable that those who have educated them in this way are not more willing and practical in their methods of helping them.
To shut them up in jails or set them to breaking stones on the streets does not cure the evil. It only strengthens and deepens the feeling of hatred that they already cherish toward the rich. The wealthy have made their factories pay, and, altho their business may now be at a standstill, yet they have a big treasure of hoarded wealth. They have houses, lands, and stocks which they think are secure. But mingle among these discontented men and see. This whole world is a social volcano. Shut your eyes to it if you will, but disguise it you can not. And the mutterings of discontent show that an active eruption can not be long delayed.
Some of these tramps are lazy and have become confirmed vagabonds. There is but little prospect of reforming such; still some of these may be reached. But there is a large number of them who really want to work. They seek for work day after day, the vision of their hungering wife and children goading them on. But each day are they disappointed, and each day they grow more bitter in saying that “it is exasperating beyond endurance when a man is anxious to work to support himself and family, that he can find nothing to do.” This discontent is not so very loud and outspoken in this country just now, but it is very deep. And when it is once set aflame, it will make a stir. The rioting in Italy is only a sample of what will be universally seen; and who knows when the spark will be struck that will ignite the social explosion?
It is an easy matter for one to look out from a pleasant and finely-appointed home, or from a comfortable carriage gliding down a beautiful street, and exclaim: “How fair and beautiful this world!” “How charmingly grand is everything moving on!” But if you could only sense the feelings of bitterness that rankle in the hearts of thousands as you pass them by, a cloud of dreadful sadness would fill your soul.
The signs of our times are ominous. Be sure that you read them aright. T.
TWO-DOLLAR WHEAT.
By T.
For the last few days such head-lines as the following have been appearing in the papers:—
WHEAT TO REACH TWO DOLLARS.
Big Deal Will Be Closed Next Tuesday.
By Clever Manipulation a Young Chicago Millionaire Has Made Big Money.
It might seem that two-dollar wheat would be an indication of great prosperity, and that the farmers would now be gathering a well-merited reward for their toil. But things are not always just what they seem. Instead of the farmer getting any great good out of this unnatural rise in the price of wheat, it is only a trick in the gambling with grain by which a man who already has his millions is turning another fabulous sum—no one knows how much—into his already overflowing vaults.
Every one who buys a loaf of bread or sack of flour is forced to contribute to this great fortune. The man has a “corner” on wheat and has set his price, and there is no alternative but to pay it. The poor widow who is working day and night for a pittance on which she can barely live; the decrepit man with pain in every joint, and who nevertheless has to drive himself along in order to secure a few mites with which to feed his impoverished family; the pale-faced, consumptive girl who sadly toils by day and wearily though devotedly watches at the bedside of an aged mother by night; these, together with all the vast multitude of poverty-stricken and helpless human beings, must come forward and each cast in their share of the great sum that swells the millions of the man who has been keen enough to get a “corner” on wheat.
A man may feel a certain kind of satisfaction over the feat of acquiring millions of dollars, but when those dollars are actually wrung from the very life-blood of unfortunate fellow-beings, there must be hours when a sense of shame and remorse steals over the mind. There must come the unbidden vision of haggard and pinching want that the great army of the destitute are forced to suffer. And there must also be a continual inner consciousness that the distress caused by the grasping of wealth will have to be accounted for before the great Judge.
But the danger on the part of the poor and oppressed is that they will take the matter into their own hands and by violent rioting make bad conditions very much worse. The signs of our times all show that the end of this world is very near, and the One who knows no injustice or oppression is about to arise to execute judgment. And amid these times of evil He exhorts us: “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned; behold, the Judge standeth before the door.” James 5:8, 9.
Read carefully and thoughtfully the whole of this fifth chapter of James. You will see that it is giving valuable instruction for us in these “last days.” The “heaping” together of treasure for the last days, and the oppression of the laborer, are mentioned, and then we are exhorted to patience.
God will Himself soon straighten all these difficulties by destroying the evil. Leave it to Him, and it will be done right. Take the matter up yourself, and only ruin can result. T.
THEY CERTAINLY NEED PRAYERS.
By W. N. G.
“When the Maine was blown up in Havana harbor, three Christian Endeavor sailors were on board. How many scores and hundreds of our Endeavorers have sprung forward to take the places in the defense of their country left so sadly vacant by Jencks, Meilstrup, and Rushworth, there is no means of knowing, but undoubtedly there are many of them. Let us remember them all in our most earnest prayers.”—C. E. World.
Yes, pray for them; they certainly need it. If any man in this world needs praying for, it is the professed follower of Christ who deliberately dons the world’s armor, seizes a carnal weapon, and seeks opportunity to slay his fellow-men. “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” Luke 9:56. There could not be a greater deception than to suppose that killing men is Christian endeavor. Imagine the inconsistency of “Christian” warriors going forward killing and wounding other “Christians,” and a third band of “Christians” having to follow after and bind up the wounds. Is not the death rate from ordinary and natural causes (an average of one a second) enough, without professed Christians rushing in to make it greater? The Christian’s commission is, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Shall we do this with sword and rifle and cannon and torpedo?—O, no; “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood;” and “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal”! Yes, pray for the men who are so deluded as to think it Christlike to take the life of even the bitterest foe. W. N. G.
The Salaries of Catholic Clergy
The archbishop of Santiago, Cuba, and the bishop of Havana have a yearly salary of $18,000 each. There are many other professed shepherds of the flock of God who draw annual salaries of from $2,000 to $12,000. When the poor are called upon to sacrifice some of the commonest necessities of life to help make up these princely clerical salaries, it would seem that those who are living upon them would hardly be able to keep back some very sober reflections. It is said of the Author of Christianity that He “had not where to lay His head.” Then how can a man deceive himself into thinking that he is following the great Shepherd of the sheep when he is willing to take such large salaries, and regale himself with all the luxuries of life, when the divine Lord set no such example? And how can a person be following the unselfish Master when he is willing to bestow every kind of good thing upon himself, while thousands of his fellows are pale with hunger and destitution?
Armageddon and the Growing Military Establishment
The Northwestern Christian Advocate says that “we shall never again reduce our regular peace establishment to 25,000 men.” This is not a prophecy of a peace millennium. The sentiment is growing stronger and stronger in this country that the United States must develop and train her military and naval powers in order to stand in line with the rest of the world. It is folly to talk of peace in the presence of existing conditions. The great battle of Armageddon lies immediately before us. Just how soon it may come, no one can forecast. But that it is near is plain to be seen. And as professing Christians we should be using all our powers to point mankind to the “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” rather than to the fictitious glories of the battle-field.
The Body as a Sacred Temple
THE human body should be to us like a sacred temple, which we should keep pure and undefiled. Approach with something of awe and reverence, a temple of flesh, dedicated to the highest purposes, the habitation of a divine image.—Dr. Joseph Silverman, Hebrew, New York City.
