PATIENCE is the finishing touch of Christ-like character and services. It is the perfecting of all other good traits. There is a patience of faith in God which brings conquering power and unspeakable peace. There is a patience of love which is peculiarly divine and wonderful, and there is a patience of hope full of mighty inspiration. This patience is born of mighty tribulations and struggles and is so precious that no cost is extravagant for it.
Patience must be at every point of character building. This we get in trials and exercises. We learn to hold still in the hottest fire, and to acquire by practise a patient attitude towards all things. The terrible wear and tear of incessant irritability and ebullition of temper is no longer allowed. Great disappointments, bitter injuries and wrongs, no longer fire our passions, nor little annoyances fill our rest with thorns. We bring faith up to unwavering patience toward God and His exceeding great and precious promises; we develop courage until it is a steady fire and not a flash for the moment; we secure a hope which does not watch every cloud nor die with every thunder gust. To every point of character we give the foundation and polish of patience. And, letting patience have her perfect work, we may indeed become perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Patience is power in working for God. We sow to-day and are delighted if we may reap to-morrow, but will not weary even if we reap not for years. Peter had three thousand souls saved after his great sermon full of the Holy Ghost, but Stephen, just as wonderfully baptized, had no immediate result except to be stoned to death. But Stephen had Saul of Tarsus for successor, and it is easy to read between the lines how marvelously he influenced Saul, tho it seemed not at all at the time. To win a soul for Christ is sometimes the work of years, and it is worth the toil of a lifetime. Fruit can not be unduly hurried without serious injury to it, and if it be too early gathered may be utterly worthless.
Patience in work, however, is simply continued and most persistent work. We are not idly waiting when we have Christlike patience. Patience is pluck, push, perseverance in perpetual motion. It is not a restraint upon activity but a powerful inspiration to more. It is not "down brakes," but "open throttle more." Christ is our sublime example in His ministry of such patience.
Patience is the right attitude under strange providences. What God does now we understand not, yet we will not believe it anything but supremely wise and right and good. We say to our bleeding hearts, "Patience!" and to our impulsive complaints, "Hush!" Our God is wholly good and wise. How He leads we may not discern, but that it is upward to light and power we patiently believe. What He has for us in life we see not, but that it is worthy of divine love we know.
Patience under persecutions. We have the prophets and apostles as glorious examples. How strange and cruel their reception by men! How dark their pathway for weary years! And how fierce the flames of their sufferings! But see their heroic patience. Here in the hustling, nervous nineteenth century there is greater need than ever of this beautiful and perpetual patience.—Dr. Charles Roads.
"MY FATHER AND YOUR FATHER."
By T. E. Bowen
CHRIST'S mission to this earth was to correct the lie given by Satan to the human race concerning the character of His Father. He could not endure the thought that man should entertain the idea that God—who had created the great universe for the happiness of every intelligence—was arbitrary, tyrannical, and self-seeking. Laying aside all His power, glory, and exaltation beside the throne, Christ came among men to vindicate the true character of our loving heavenly Father. This was His mission.
"O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee; but I have known Thee;" "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world;" "As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father." These texts show that Christ is the only One ever in our world prepared to give a correct witness or testimony concerning the Father and His character. Again, in seeing Him, our race saw the Father; for this testimony concerning Christ is given us: "God . . . hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person," etc. (Heb. 1:1-3); also Jesus told Philip, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?"
To the Son was committed this responsible work of revealing the Father, because no being beside Him in all the universe knew the Father as did He. None could fathom His infinite love, power, mercy, and goodness, but the Son. So He alone could become a Redeemer. Angels might offer to die for the fallen race, but redemption consisted of something infinitely greater than to die. The character of God and His eternal, holy law must be vindicated amidst sinners. God's very every-day heavenly life must be lived among sinful men, and that, too, clothed with sinful flesh. Thus revealing the life of the Father, men would be drawn to Him, leaving, by choice, the service of sin. "All things," said Christ, "are delivered unto Me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son shall reveal Him." Matt. 11:27. Again, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." John 14:6. Not that this is arbitrarily so, but absolutely no man can come unto the Father but through the knowledge of His goodness revealed only by His Son.
Jesus loves His Father. He enjoys His presence. He is anxious that our happiness shall be made complete by our loving Him too; for He knows that in His presence, with hearts made pure, for us also is "fulness of joy." He left a perfect testimony in the world that the Father loves us. "For God so loved the world," "And he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father;" "If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him," are some of the expressions in words of the Father's love.
Then, after His resurrection, Jesus still assures us that, altho He had suffered a cruel death among men, the Father's love would not be withdrawn from us. In revealing Himself to Mary, He says, "Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God." What a precious assurance! Even as He is My Father, so He is yours. His love for you, His sons, because you are "My brethren," will be the same that it has been for Me. And this is the way He has loved you all the time, but you knew it not.
Reader, this is the God you are invited to love and obey. To know Him is but to love Him, and to love Him is but to obey Him. If you have not already done so, would it not be well for you to "acquaint now thyself with God [margin], and be at peace [not at war]; thereby good shall come unto thee" (Job 22:21)? T. E. BOWEN.
THE WASTE OF WAR.
GIVE me the gold that war has cost,
Before this peace-expanding day—
The wasted skill, the labor lost,
The mental treasure thrown away—
And I will buy each rod of soil
In every yet discovered land,
Where hunters roam, where peasants toil,
Where many-peopled cities stand.
I'll clothe each shivering wretch on earth
In needful, nay, in brave attire,
Vesture befitting banquet mirth,
Which kings might envy and admire.
In every vale on every plain,
A school shall glad the gazer's sight,
Where every poor man's child may gain
Pure knowledge, free as air and light.
In every crowded town shall rise
Halls academic, amply graced,
Where ignorance may soon be wise,
And coarseness learn both art and taste.
To every province shall belong
Collegiate structures and not few,
Filled with a truth-exploring throng,
And teachers of the good and true.
A temple to attract and teach
Shall lift its spire on every hill,
Where pious men shall feel and preach
Peace, mercy, tolerance, good-will;
Music of bells on Sabbath days,
Round the whole earth shall gladly rise,
And one great Christian song of praise
Stream sweetly upward to the skies.
—Anon.
THE SOURCE OF PAPAL AUTHORITY.
By H. C. Giles
[This is article fourteen of the series.]
WHENCE did "the beast" (the Papacy) receive its power and authority? Answer—"And the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority." Rev. 13:2, R.V.
While the dragon is secondarily a symbol of Pagan Rome, primarily it is symbolic of Satan, the great adversary of God in this world, of whom Pagan Rome was, at the first advent of Christ, but the tool and agent, being actuated by the same spirit. That the dragon actually symbolizes Satan is shown from the following: "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan." Rev. 12:9. The dragon, then, is Satan, who was cast out of heaven. Verses 7-9. From Satan, therefore, the adversary of God and man, the Papacy received its authority and power.
Truly this is no pleasing picture; but it is painted by the divine Artist, and is therefore true. It is the system of which we speak. "By their fruits ye shall know them," is the inspired test. Applied here, what are the fruits of the papal tree?—Exaltation of self, opposition to God, blasphemy, persecution of the saints, casting down the truth to the ground, treading underfoot the sanctuary, the Dark Ages, ignorance, and superstition. It is but the low trail of that old serpent that first reared its ugly head in heaven, and in its downward fall to earth drew after it one-third of the angels (Rev. 12:4), and in all the ages since has been working even with "all power and signs and lying wonders," to "draw away" into the same ruin and oblivion the church of Christ.
We have seen that paganism was Satan’s means anciently to "draw away" the people of God into idol worship, which inspiration declares to be the service of "devils." 1 Cor. 10:20. No sooner was the church firmly established upon its divine foundation than Satan manifested his "great wrath" (Rev. 12:12) through his faithful instrument, paganism, to scatter the "little flock." Christ was "God manifest in the flesh," "the mystery of godliness," declared to be "great." 1 Tim. 3:16. Satan determined to set in operation a rival power, whose "look" was more "stout," and whose influence should be "greater." And as God in Christ is incarnate in the church, thereby to show that the power of His love is great, so did Satan incarnate himself in the "man of sin," to prove that the force of cruelty and hate, the forces of iniquity, are greater.
Let the reader here reflect that it was God’s "eternal purpose" to make the church, redeemed from a fallen race, a trophy of His grace, and a triumph of love, and love alone, over every and all other forces, thus to prove to all His creatures that He is what He claims to be,—a God whose name and every attribute is Love. Eph. 2:4, 7; 3:10, 12; 1 John 4:8. For this reason it was the strategic part of Satan’s great plan of rebellion against the government of heaven to get control of the church. Isa. 14:13. He tried Paganism as his agent to subdue the church, but the church was "more than conqueror," as the following extract beautifully sets forth:—
During the succession of persecution which came to an end on the accession of Constantine to supreme power, and his adoption of the Christian faith, there were very many who submitted to imprisonment, torture, and death. . . . It was the heroic age in the history of the church, when, with no aid from the arm of flesh, the whole might of the Roman Empire was victoriously encountered by the unarmed and unresisting adherents of the Christian faith. Imperial Rome, the conqueror of the world, was herself overcome by the bands of Christian disciples, whose meek but dauntless courage was more than a match for all her power.—Fisher’s History of the Christian Church, pp. 50, 51.
Satan’s next and last resort was to corrupt the church itself, and thus to envelop it in the same cloud of darkness that rests like a funeral pall upon the world. Those whom he could not in this way corrupt, he sought to exterminate altogether, hoping thus that the earth, with all its inhabitants, would be in his hand and under his dominion.
We have learned in previous articles that God’s Sabbath of rest in the seventh day, was the institution ordained in the beginning "for man," by which he might ever know of his Creator’s sanctifying power. So long, therefore, as man truly kept God’s Sabbath, so long would he continue to know and to serve God. Hence, before the church could be corrupted and "drawn away" from God, God’s Sabbath must first be taken away, and a counterfeit established in its stead, and established too as one of the institutions of the church, for it is the church that is to be drawn away.
Again, the Sabbath precept is the only part of God’s law that represents, on its true basis, the authority of God. The reason given by God for requiring the observance of the Sabbath is that God created "heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is" (Ex. 20:11); and "hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God" (Eze. 20:20). The Sabbath, therefore, represents God’s right to rule His people, and the individual who keeps God’s Sabbath thereby acknowledges God’s right to set up His throne in his heart, and rule his life with His own authority. This sign of God’s authority must, therefore, be taken away and be substituted by a fitting symbol of apostasy, in order for the apostate power to be successful in its work of drawing away the disciples.
The fact has already been noticed that "the dragon gave him [the beast, the symbol of apostasy] his power, and his throne, and great authority." Rev. 13:2, R.V. Therefore the Sabbath must be the point where this apostate power will especially attack the truth of God. As just noted, the Sabbath is the institution in which God sets Himself forth as He is to His people. In no other commandment of the Decalogue is God set forth as He is—the Creator of all, thus distinguished from all false gods or objects of worship.
Of this apostasy we read "that He sitteth in the temple of God [the church, 1 Cor. 3:17; 2 Cor. 6:16], setting Himself forth as God." 2 Thess. 2:4, R.V. As already noted, this power is characterized as having a notable disregard for the law of God. Add to that the thought that he is to set himself forth as God, and remembering that in the Sabbath precept God sets Himself forth, it will be seen that the prophecy points, unmistakably, to an attempt to change the Sabbath of Jehovah.
As stated, the Sabbath precept represents God’s throne and authority. Let it be remembered that in the beginning Satan declared: "I will exalt my throne; . . . I will be like the Most High." Isa. 14:13, 14. This apostate power is said to be he that "opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped." 2 Thess. 2:4. It is also declared in the prophecy under consideration that "the dragon [the devil] gave him [this apostate power] his power, and his throne, and great authority." Rev. 13:2, R.V. This also clearly points to an attempt by this power to change the Sabbath, the sign of God’s authority.
It is plain, therefore, that the same unholy ambition for self-exaltation, which possessed Lucifer in heaven, is the inspiration of this apostasy in the church. It was declared by God to be "iniquity" then, the "mystery of iniquity" still. The same unrighteous "traffic" in souls, which Lucifer began in heaven in the inception of his iniquitous scheme, this apostate power employs in the church to draw away disciples from their rightful Lord, by counterfeiting His Sabbath.
All these considerations plainly mark this apostasy as a continuation of the great rebellion which began in heaven, the scene of the conflict being transferred to this earth.
EVEN THE HEATHEN SEE IT.
By G.
NOTHING has done more, if as much, to make Christianity appear obnoxious to intelligent heathen in acknowledged heathen countries as the claim that certain other nations are Christian nations. Christianity has not received a harder blow in modern times than the official declaration of the United States Supreme Court that "this is a Christian nation." We need not except even Great Britain’s opium and liquor traffic as an accompaniment to her missionary effort. The intelligent heathen know what Christianity purports to be, and the good influence its votaries promise to them when urging them to accept it. Then when they are told that the United States pose as a Christian nation, they naturally look here for the fruit that professed Christians promise to them on condition that they accept Christian doctrine. Being of the world, and having no faith, they naturally walk by sight. They naturally look over here to see the quality of the morality so lavishly promised to them if they will become Christian nations. And it is little wonder that they are disappointed. As illustrative of this point, we submit an extract from an address by Dr. MacArthur, of New York, as reported in the last number of the Converted Catholic:—
While riding in a train in India about four years ago, I met a very learned Hindu belonging to Benares. Benares, you know, is the headquarters of Hinduism. It was a city that was old before Rome and Athens were born. It was contemporaneous with Jerusalem in the days of Solomon. It sent many of the ornaments to Jerusalem that decorated Solomon’s palace and court. My fellow-passenger was a learned man, a graduate of Queen’s College, in India. He asked me what I thought of Benares. I told him that I thought it was the filthiest and vilest city that I had seen. I had gone into the temple in which bulls and cows were objects of worship. I had seen these same cattle walking7through the streets of Benares, eating all the vegetables at the stands in the markets, and the vegetable owners did not attempt to drive them away. I had gone into temples where a kind of worship is paid to monkeys. I had also seen the great tank in which the pilgrims bathe, until the top of that tank was covered with a green scum, and then I saw the people dipping their pitchers in that water, thus vile, and carrying it home, because it was holy water. You need not be surprised that they have cholera in Benares. You need not be surprised that when the council of doctors met in Paris—two of them having gone from New York, appointed by President Cleveland—to form plans to prevent the spread of cholera, their whole, or at least their chief, thought was given to Benares.
When my friend asked me what I thought of the great city of Hinduism, I said: “It is the vilest place I was ever in. You need a new religion, or else a new municipal administration.” He turned to me with the question: “Did I understand you, sir, to say that you came from New York? Do you mean to say that Benares is any filthier and viler than New York?” I said, “We have a reform administration just now in New York.” Here was a man who was never outside of India in his life, yet he was as familiar with Chicago and Boston and New York as you and I are. He could call the names of all the Tammany sachems, and call them by their nicknames, every one. He finally turned to me, and said—and I tell you his remark was an eye-opener—“If Tammany Hall represents the best that a republican form of government can do in the management of a city, I thank all the gods of heathenism that I belong to an imperial government and not to a democracy.” And then he added, “If Tammany Hall represents Christianity in municipal politics, again I thank all the gods that I am what you call a heathen.”
If Tammany Hall were the only American institution to which the Hindu could point to sustain his argument against the so-called Christianity professed by the government of the United States, we might tell him that was only the Judas of the company. But, unfortunately, the inconsistency is not confined to Tammany, nor to any city or State. Nor has experience shown that the so-called “reform administrations”—either municipal or State—have in any permanent manner represented Christianity to better advantage than those they superseded. Often they have been even worse.
Again, if it were only the Hindu who sees the great discrepancy between the profession and the practise of national Christianity, we might think possibly he is mistaken. But the intelligent heathen of every persuasion—whether Buddhist, Confucian, or Mohammedan—persistently remind us of the manifest incongruity. But the crowning testimony of all is the Word of Christ Himself, the root of Christian practise, the Golden Rule, which no earthly government can observe; for the very nature and purpose of civil government are compulsory, and compulsion is in no sense an attribute of Christianity. G.
ROMANIZED.
By L. A. Phippeny
IN its issue of May 2, the Advent Christian Messenger, commenting, under the above head, upon a sentiment appearing in the public press to set aside Good Friday as a legal holiday, with possibly such legal restrictions as apply to Sunday, says:—
Are we becoming Romanized? It would seem so from the way we are following in Rome's steps in forms and ceremonies. Many of Rome's festivals, festal days, and observances were borrowed from pagan idolaters, such as Christmas, Easter, etc. These are now celebrated by Protestants with as much enthusiasm as by the Romanists.
We have heard of an old saying that “with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.” And the words follow, “Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” Then the admonition is, to such be-
holders, “First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.” Good as the comment of the Messenger is, yet it is by no means complete, because the Messenger is not seeing clearly. There is a beam in its eye, and the words used to condemn Protestants for following in Rome's steps, condemn itself.
It is the absolute truth that “many of Rome's festivals, festal days, and observances were borrowed from pagan idolaters, such as Christmas, Easter, etc.,” and “are now celebrated by Protestants with as much enthusiasm as by the Romanists.” The Messenger did not name all of these things borrowed from paganism and adopted by Protestants, presumably for lack of time and space to enumerate them. All the rest come under “etc.” But in that Latin abbreviation is the beam that obscures its vision, and shuts out the plain testimony against the whole of the evil.
The most common of all the festivals and holidays borrowed from old paganism by Rome, and “now celebrated by Protestants with as much enthusiasm as by the Romanists,” should certainly be mentioned, and that is Sunday. And in observing this day the Messenger, and the denomination it represents, are assuredly following in the steps of Rome, and have, to that extent, become Romanized. Come out, friends, and be separate. Take your stand under the banner of Jehovah, and honor His holy Sabbath. Then will you see with a clearness not experienced before; and to a message of the soon-coming Saviour in the clouds of heaven you may add with power the proclamation to “fear God, and keep His commandments.” And this is “the faith of Jesus.” L. A. PHIPPENY.
THE ABIDING WITNESS.
By E. Garbett
“And he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us.” 1 John 3:24.
The first lesson which these words convey is the dignity not only of the state of the saint, but also of the evidence by which he is assured of it. This state consists in the abiding presence of God, and this not only above us, tho this is true, not only around us, tho this is true, but in us. We must neither pare down the literal fact of this indwelling, nor must we forget the majesty of the Indweller. God Himself dwells within the saints. He dwells, not flashing a ray of His glory now and then, breaking the natural darkness of the soul for a moment and then leaving it again darker than before, but abiding there, dwelling like the sun in the heavens, with his beams hidden, it may be, sometimes with earthly clouds and mist, but, like the sun behind the clouds, filling the soul, as in ancient times He filled the material temple with the glory of His presence.
With the dignity we must combine the definite clearness of the test which proves our possession of it; for we might otherwise find great difficulty. By keeping His commandments, we know. We have great cause to bless God for thus resting our hopes on our obedience, which every honest mind can see and recognize. The lesson draws close, and tight, and indissoluble the connection between faith and holiness, the heart and the life, the religion and the character and conduct. It makes Christianity to be a real, practical, working power. 1. The obedience, which is the proof of the Spirit's presence, is not a holiness finished or perfect; otherwise it would belong to none of us this side of heaven. 2. It is a holiness not complete, but progressive. 3. It is not partial. Christian obedience accepts and follows the whole law.
The words express the infinite blessedness both of the state and of the evidence. God is the source of life, and when He dwells within the soul, He dwells as the spring of life, and every pulse of that life is love, and every thrill of it joy.—E. Garbett.
Earth’s Deliverance
By John Greenleaf Whittier
AND grant, O Father! that the time
Of earth's deliverance may be near,
When every land and tongue and clime
The message of Thy love shall hear,—
When, smitten as with fire from heaven,
The captive's chain shall sink in dust,
And to his fettered soul be given
The glorious freedom of the just!
—Whittier.
Essentially and eternally, all love is of God, and all God is love. To reveal this to man, that stream of paradise was parted, and became into three heads. There was the electing love of God the Father, which gave His Son to the world, and the world to His Son; and there was the love of Jesus to the death, by which He gave Himself, the innocent Sufferer for a guilty race; and there was the love of the patient Spirit in sevenfold offices, and all to comfort those who were unhappy because they were wicked, and wicked because they were unhappy.
What do we mean when we say, “Love is of God?”— We mean, it is of the nature of God. All love is first in God. 2. Love is of God because it is His gift. Whoever wants real love must ask for it as a creation. It does not spring up here in the lower ground, but it comes down from heaven. If you find it hard to love anybody, you must remember that love is a fruit; and before there can be fruit there must be seed. 3. Love is of God because it is an emanation always flowing. This is the reason why those who live nearest to God grow the most loving. They catch the droppings; they get imbued with that with which they are in contact.
The shortest road to almost every good thing is through love. You will have to meet and to battle with many strong things; and not very long hence you will have to meet death, that mighty conqueror death. There is only one thing strong enough to be antagonistic to death—you must take it out of God's armory—“Love is strong as death.”—J. Vaughan.
Questions on the Time of Trouble
1055. Ps. 78:49.—God uses all things in heaven and earth. What He permits to come He is sometimes said to send. When He withdrew His protecting care, His guardian angels, from a rebellious people, the evil angels rushed in. God permitted them to work their way among a people who had chosen evil. "The wrath of man shall praise Him."
1056. J. E. A. Rev. 13:17.—The power that decrees that no man can buy or sell save he that has the name of the beast or the number of his name is this country, and the time is in the near future.
1057. J. S.—We know no reason why there will not be aged or afflicted ones on the earth when the Lord comes, as well as children. Those who receive of the plagues will certainly be afflicted, and doubtless some will be old. These plagues reach beyond the coming of Christ. Evidently the weaker ones will fall during the earlier part of the plagues. See Eze. 9:6. Among the people of God there will be no feeble ones (Ps. 105:37), tho there will doubtless be "old" persons and "young," as men measure age, as well as those who are defective in some of their parts. It is not wise to speculate as to just how all these things will be; God is all-wise and powerful and loving, and He will do all things well. He can carry through the plagues the youngest and oldest, the deaf and the crippled. But when He is revealed, praise God, He will "fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory." Phil. 3:21, R.V.
RELICS OF THE DARK AGES.
By George B. Thompson
UNDER the above heading, the New York World, in its Sunday issue of May 20, 1900, speaks editorially as follows:—
"It is easy to understand and to sympathize with the indignation of the Federation of Women's Clubs of New Hampshire over the discovery that in this fine old colonial State it is still the custom to restrain the insane by chaining them to convenient posts and ring-bolts in the county farms.
"The Federation of Women's Clubs should start a campaign of education to instruct the lawmakers of New Hampshire in the progress which has been made all over the civilized world since the days when the insane everywhere were treated as they are treated now in New Hampshire. But New Hampshire should not grieve too deeply over the exposure of its backwardness, nor fancy that it is the only State which perpetuates barbarous and medieval conditions in an age of civilization.
"It is only recently that the Empire State of New York relegated to innocuous desuetude the paddle and the other forms of torture at Elmira. We still cling to imprisonment for debt as a legacy from the Dark Ages. 'And there are others.' In New Jersey the Gummere decision assessing the value of a child's life at a maximum of $1.00 remains unreversed, the cruelties of the State Reform School for girls are officially indorsed by the governor, and a father with political influence (and money) may have his son imprisoned at pleasure, in the absence of any law on the subject.
"In Connecticut the running of trains on Sunday and the iniquitous vending of milk or chewing-gum are crimes prosecuted as severely as they were in New York City under a reform police rule. In Delaware the revival of the whipping-post meets with general approval. In Pennsylvania an intelligent and important and perfectly competent witness was recently shut out from testifying to matters within his knowledge because he was an agnostic.
"New Hampshire may be a hundred years or so behind the times in chaining its lunatics, but it is not alone in its backwardness."
It is worthy of notice that Connecticut is not the only State which has a Sunday law, and if it is a relic of the Dark Ages in Connecticut, it is the same wherever it exists. In Maryland, honest and peaceable citizens have been fined and incarcerated in jail for no other reason than for doing honest labor to provide the necessities of life on Sunday, in violation of that "relic" of the Dark Ages—a Sunday law—which is on the statute-book of that enlightened State. In other States, for the same reason, law-abiding citizens have been incarcerated in foul prisons and worked in the chain-gang with brutalized criminals. Their only crime was doing honest work on Sunday. Is it not time that this "relic" of the apostasy of bygone days be wiped off the law-books of a free people? G. B. THOMPSON.
Rome, N. Y.
NEW YORK'S MISSION FIELD.
By L. A. P.
FIGURES representing the remarkable growth of our large cities are astonishing things, but connected with certain facts they may present subjects truly marvelous. Such is true of New York City and its population. In the beginning of the century Manhattan Island had 60,000 inhabitants. In 1896 the number was 2,000,000, one-half of which represents the growth of the twenty years preceding. This tremendous growth is due to immigration from foreign countries, and in this connection facts and figures play the interesting part.
Within the confines of this immense seaport are great cities of people from every nation on earth. The races form colonies bearing distinctive names, such as the "Italian Colony," the "German Colony," the "Syrian Colony," etc., located within quite well-defined street limits, where may be seen the customs peculiar to the mother country, and heard the languages of the Old World. In 1890 the proportions of natives and foreigners, according to the United States census, were as follows: Persons of foreign birth, 42 per cent.; American born, of foreign parentage, 38 per cent.; American born, of American parents, 19 per cent., showing 80 per cent. of the population of the greatest American city to be foreigners born abroad or the children of foreigners.
But, interesting as are these figures, the matter becomes far more interesting and significant when the religious status is considered statistically. The estimated population of Greater New York in 1896 was 3,102,544. The Protestant church-members numbered 254,853, or 8 per cent. of the total population. Of Roman Catholics, Jews, and others there were 838,249, or 27 per cent. of the whole. Those professing no religion numbered 2,009,442. Taking from this latter sum the number of supposed Protestant adherents not church-members, there is left the surprising figure of 1,372,009 non-religious city dwellers. Then compare this with the population of say, Tokyo, Japan, the second largest heathen city of the world,—1,200,000,—and it will be seen that at our threshold, even within the borders of our nation's metropolis, there is ample scope for extended foreign mission effort.
Further comparisons show a population non-Protestant of 1,118,393 between Harlem River and Fourteenth Street as against the 1,000,000 population of Pekin, China, and below Fourteenth Street 592,518 as against 530,640, the combined populations of Yokohama, Hongkong, and Rangoon. The City's Millions, a quarterly sheet, published by the Evangel Band at 21 Mott Street, New York, to which we are indebted for the above figures, says that in 1845 the percentage of evangelical church-members was 13.5 as compared with only 7 per cent. in 1896.
City missions thus far established are wholly inadequate for the great work to be done, through lack of workers, means, and interest. Who is able, indeed? And yet here are souls as needy for the bread of eternal life as are their brethren beyond the seas. L. A. P.