When the news of the organization of a Press Bureau by the General Conference first came to my attention, I was fairly startled. And the more I think and know of it, the more solemn it appears to me.
The public prints are the eyes and ears of the world. Are we as a people, a denomination, are we as individuals, ready to have the limelight of publicity, the searchlights, as it were, turned upon us, on our churches, our institutions, our homes, our lives? Are we so true representatives of our Lord and Master that he will not suffer in the eyes of other Christians, of the world, and even of the heathen, by the exposing of all our doings to the public gaze?
In the carrying out of the program mapped out in the work given by our Press Bureau I see one of the greatest movements of the age, and one of the strongest proofs that we are nearing the end of time.
As the record of the little happenings in our churches and communities, of our greater doings in institutions, in sanitariums, schools, and publishing houses, our still greater doings in missionary lines, the sending out of ministers, doctors, teachers, nurses, and other workers to foreign lands, and our efforts for the heathen at home and abroad,—as these things come under the eyes of the readers of the local papers and of the great dailies, weeklies, and monthlies, there will come a wide inquiry to the lips of the world, “Who are these people? and what do they believe? How have they gained such force so quietly and in so short a time?” As the reports of our meetings and conferences appear, I see reporters coming to interview us, and making their searching inquiries in quest of news.
Then for a little while, it may be, we shall enjoy that period of popularity of which we have been told, and God will call out those that are his, and they will unite with us. Then will come the reaction. The great controversy between Christ and Satan will again spring up, the unseen forces of evil will be concentrated for the last supreme effort against us and against our Master, and then—the end!
Again I ask, Are we ready for all this? Are our institutions, our homes, our individual hearts, ready for the searchlights to be turned on? Are we filled with the spirit of the Master? Do we live as brethren? Do we in honor prefer one another? Are we living examples of the religion we profess, willing to be read and known of all men?
And as our young people receive the instruction given by the bureau in preparing and sending articles to the press, let no one feel that it is a light matter, a way to make a name for one’s self, to get his name into print. In view of the subject-matter that should be furnished the press, and the use that may subsequently be made of the “news” sent out,
let every one who handles the pen be wide-awake and watchful, be vigilant, lest by some unguarded word or expression, you mar the work of God, and convey a wrong impression, and thus hurt the cause which you would serve. We believe that we are God’s “peculiar people,” and these peculiarities will stand out in white light as we come more prominently before the world. If one is not guided by the Holy Spirit, he will be in great danger of saying something that will arouse prejudice, and perhaps cut off every avenue to some honest heart.
To me the establishment of this Press Bureau seems one of the greatest moves ever made by Seventh-day Adventists; and I wonder, O, I wonder, if we are ready! May God help us all to see what it means, and not rush into print in a careless, flippant, selfish spirit. God knows if we are ready; and the fact that he has allowed the bureau to be established, should give us cause for self-examination. Another hour of the great clock of time has struck.
*Sanitarium, Cal.
The Dark Days
By Burlington Hawkeye
It is so human to cry out in dismay when we are frightened by the blackness that settles over our lives as the clouds of trouble and of pain are passing over them. Human to believe for a time that they are too dense ever to break away and let the sunshine through. So human to try to find some one else at fault, and not our own mistakes, our sins, or our almost inexcusable ignorance. So human to forget that we have been Christ-warned again and again of the way that is pain-haunted, where the ghosts of our wrong thinking and careless living stand guard, and will not allow us to forget how much we have lost of joy and gathered of sorrow that need never have been.
These memories are so large a part of our every-day life that they can not be separated from the “every-day sorrows.” The heaviest sorrow that has ever been borne by human heart has not been because God willed it, but because somehow it grew out of sinfulness or ignorance, and instead of being classed as an unusual one, it belongs alone to the one soul and God, who sorrows with it.
There is always strength for what God puts in our way, always the Comforter to share the natural, unavoidable griefs of our every-day lives. God never wills us any condition that needs to crush out all joy in life. His compensations are commensurate to every trial that comes to us through unavoidable causes or natural processes. It is only when we pass away beyond, and defy his will by going our own foolish way, that we find the bottomless abyss of pain, the full meaning of uncomforted sorrow. We must keep close, with our eyes on him while we walk the waves, or, like Peter, we shall find ourselves sinking beyond our depth. But even on the stormiest sea we may always be safe if we are going toward the Christ’s outstretched hand. Remember you need only to hold fast to that hand to bear your ‘every-day sorrow,’ for he knows all about it. He has wept with other mourners, then comforted them, and helped them to bear, and so he will help you if you will give him the chance Peter gave him on the sea; but of how many of his doubting, distressed children he can say, “How often would I, but ye would not!”
“The way is long, my child, but it shall be
Not one step longer than is best for thee;
And thou shalt know at last, when thou shalt stand
Close to the gate, how I did take thy hand,
And quick and straight led thee to heaven’s gate, my child!”
— Burlington Hawkeye.
Talking the Minister Up
Years ago there was trouble in a certain church over the young pastor. Many members insisted upon his leaving. His few ardent friends insisted with equal zeal upon his remaining. Much bad feeling had been generated. The case was critical.
Finally two prominent gentlemen called the congregation together and counseled them as follows: “It is true our pastor is not a great man. He does not preach learned or eloquent sermons, but we all know that he is a good man, and that he is doing all in his power to promote our spiritual interests. Let us all agree to bear with him, and, instead of talking him down, let us go out from this meeting resolved to talk him up.”
The advice was accepted. The result you can guess. He remained in that church nearly half a century, and remarkable success attended his ministry.
Many talk the minister down. They discount all his doings. They misunderstand his plainest sayings. They credit him with unworthy motives. They predestinate his failure. An angel from heaven could not succeed under such conditions.
That is unwise. It is unfair. It is wicked. How much better to “talk up” the minister!
The world will accept him at your estimate, and respect him according to the measure of your own respect.
Talk up the minister in your home. Help him to win and save the children.
— Selected.
The Dangers of Pride
It is unsafe for a man who desires to serve Christ to “think of himself more highly than he ought to think.” But he should “think soberly.” If the Lord’s servant fails to give himself sober consideration, he is liable to become “high-minded” and to cease to “fear,” and “pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” Pride is a foe that blinds us to our faults, and, sad to say, to the virtues of others. The haughty spirit will not forgive, and the proud heart can feel no pity, yet none need pity and forgiveness more.—Western Recorder.
Editorial
By Editor
The Sabbath Institution
Its Divine Origin
TWIN institutions have descended to us from Eden, and have been closely identified with the history of man throughout his experience. These sister institutions are the Sabbath of the Lord and the marriage relationship. Both institutions have suffered from the attacks of the great adversary of truth. The forgetting of one, that of the Sabbath, has led to the forgetting of God, the creator of it. The disregard of the other has led to the corruption of society. These attacks have sometimes been outspoken and brazen in their effrontery. More often, however, they have been subtle, insinuating, and undermining.
These two institutions in the closing days of earth’s history will continue to be the special object of Satan’s maliciousness. Perhaps there are no religious questions before the world at the present time receiving more wide-spread consideration than the questions of the Sabbath and the marriage relationship. It is proper that this paper, an appointed herald of Sabbath truth, should often review the evidences upon which our faith in this divine institution is based.
Naturally, when we come to consider an institution of this character, we inquire for its origin, and by what authority it makes claim to our regard and observation. In seeking for this information relative to the Sabbath, we have not far to look. The Scriptures of truth bear plain and unmistakable testimony with reference to this.
Christ Lord of the Sabbath
Of his own relationship to the Sabbath the divine Author of Christianity himself declares, “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” In what sense is Christ Lord of the Sabbath?—Primarily in the sense that he is the creator of it. In his divine purpose he made it. He made it in the beginning when he made the worlds.
The great apostle to the Gentiles says he was ordained “to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.” Eph. 3:9. Again he says, in his letter to the Corinthians, “To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” 1 Cor. 8:6.
In Paul’s letter to the church in Colosse, after stating that Christ is the image of the invisible God and the first-born of every creature, he says: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” Col. 1:16, 17.
One more positive declaration will suffice to prove the companionship of Christ with the Father in the creation of the universe. Says John, in the first chapter and second and third verses of his Gospel, in speaking of Christ, or the Word: “The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.”
Hence we must conclude that, as all things were made by Christ, as by him all things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, were created, as by him all things consist, and as without him nothing was made that was made, Christ must have been the creative agency in the formation of this earth. He was present when the long reign of darkness was first broken by the light, as recorded in the first day’s record of time. It was his power that separated the light from the darkness, that created the bodies in the firmament of heaven to give light by day and light by night, that caused the earth to bring forth, and the waters to multiply living things. And he it was who formed man, the masterpiece of his work, in his own image, as the ruler of the world he had made.
Upon the work of his hands the Creator looked with pleasure. He had wrought wisely and well. He “saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” What a scene was here! Sin had not marred God’s wondrous work. No blot rested upon the fair face of nature. It was a day, as the Lord declared to his servant Job, when “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”
The Sabbath a Memorial
One thing remained to constitute a fitting climax to this creative week. God gave the earth to man, and now, that the human family might ever keep in mind the Author of their existence, the Giver of all the blessings with which they are surrounded, the Lord created a memorial of his work. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.”
The Creator did not rest because he himself was weary. “The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary.” The Lord rested upon the Sabbath day in satisfied contemplation of his work, and for the benefit of mankind. By this act he constituted the Sabbath a memorial of his work, an institution through which he designs the human family ever to bear in mind the one true God. Thus in a double sense Christ is Lord of the Sabbath. First, he is its author. He constituted it the Sabbath by his own divine act. Second, he made it the sign or memorial of his great creative power. Related thus to Christ and his work, the Sabbath is emphatically a Christian institution, and as such demands the allegiance of Christ’s followers. Of the steps by which the Sabbath was more fully dedicated to this use, we shall speak further. F. M. W.
Ripening Fruits of an Ancient Deception
By C. M. S.
WITHIN the last few years there have sprung into being many teachers and many periodicals whose purpose it is to teach men to think themselves gods, to put themselves upon the plane of divinity. That is a proposition that is hoary with age. It was conjured in heaven by one who chose the worship of self in preference to the worship of the One through whom he had his being. It proved the angels’ deception in heaven; it proved man’s deception in the earth. It was a generic falsehood; for from it have sprung a great crop of other falsehoods and false systems of worship.
That teaching in the garden of Eden, “Ye shall be as gods,” was the fountainhead of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul; for it was coupled with, and had in it the essence of, that other statement, “Ye shall not surely die.” The tree which sprang from that seed-lie has been, during all the ages since, dropping down fruit that had in it inherently the essence of death. That teaching which was the foundation of all heathenism has not been left to the heathen world. It is with us yet, clung to and propagated by much of the professed Christian world.
The Word of God teaches this truth, that he who is made a new creature in Christ Jesus has Christ in him “the hope of glory.” It teaches men also to let the9mind of Christ be in them, that it may direct them in the ways that are in harmony with the law of God; but the doctrine of that ancient error teaches Christ, or God, incarnate in our flesh. The ideas may seem to some akin, if not in harmony; but they are as far apart as light and darkness, as life and death; as far apart as the poles of the heavens. The one exalts man, and brings in as a natural consequence the worship of self; the other exalts Christ, and puts away from us every form of worship save the worship of God. The one is the counterfeit, the other is the genuine. The one turns men into the ways of destruction; the other leads them by the straight path up to the throne of God. The one must explain away all scriptures that are not in harmony with it; the other takes the Word of God and hews itself to the line of that Word, “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
Satanic in its inception, that doctrine of deception can end only in the destruction which uproots every plant that has not been planted by the eternal God. Satan said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; . . . I will be like the Most High;” and that is the doctrine which he preached to the angels. It is the doctrine that he preached to the innocent pair in Eden, for them to believe and work upon for their own self-exaltation.
In this new thought, this new theology, which is new only in its metamorphosis into a sort of Christian-ethics stage, man is declared to be able to compass his own salvation, to be his own savior, able to liberate himself from sin and its consequences, having within himself the power to cure himself of sickness and all the ailments of the flesh, and, finally, of being in himself “the highest expression of God.”
In this not only is God’s Word utterly discredited; but the plan of redemption, all that God has done for man, is emphatically denied, cast aside, trampled underfoot; and then man is put in the place of God, to do for himself that which none but God can do for him.
Some time ago there sprang up in this country a society whose express purpose was the exaltation of man, the setting forth of his divinity and his all-sufficiency in himself. That society has many supporters now in the journals that are devoting their strength and influence to that very idea. Books are multiplying rapidly which advocate the same ideas, the pith of which is contained in this expression: “Man will yet fling his form into the heavens and root himself in God.” That is what Satan tempted Eve to attempt to do; that is what the builders of the tower of Babel tried to do. The same idea is voiced in these presumptuous words: “Order is our only savior, and, like the picture in the soul of the artist, it lies within us waiting to be revealed.” In other words, we are taught that we need no Saviour but ourself.
This all works toward the exaltation of self and the worship of self. It is man’s attempt to do in the earth what Satan attempted to do in heaven, and the two things are branches of the same evil root.
That one subtle purpose has run through the work of Satan from the day he conspired against his Maker down to the present day, and will continue thus until his last victim has been ensnared. His power over those who have not the mind of Christ will continue unto the end, and will increase as it continues. The subtlety of his sophistry will continue to grow keener unto the end, and to develop diversified phases of unbelief. The rapid increase of these teachings of heathenism to which we have referred proves this to be so. There has been an awakening among the adherents of these teachings in the lands that have been longest enslaved and darkened by them, and they are now rapidly spreading in the lands that had not known them hitherto. They are even permeating the pulpit orations of Christian churches, and are winning their disastrous way wherever the power of God has not come in to dominate the life.
The harvest of the earth is about ready for the sickle—the weeds as well as the wheat. It is time to seek God, to “watch unto prayer,” that the overspreading delusions of the last days may not reckon us among their victims. C. M. S.
Editorial Department Communications
All communications relating to the Editorial department, and all manuscripts submitted for publication, should be addressed to Editorial Department, Review and Herald, Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., and not to any individual.
Disasters by Land and Sea
By F. M. W.
THE present year bids fair to equal any of its predecessors in furnishing its full quota of disasters. The disaster of the “Titanic” stands without a parallel. The terrible floods along the Mississippi, which have resulted in the destruction of hundreds of lives and thousands of dollars' worth of property, are unprecedented in the history of this country. Fire and earthquake in different parts of the world have accomplished their destructive work. We are reaching the time in earth's history when these evils seem to be rapidly on the increase and whether the cause of some of these disasters is directly traceable to the neglect or devisings of men, they nevertheless cause ominous forebodings. Multitudes are looking into the future with feelings of uncertainty. They know not what a day may bring forth. Every morning the click of the telegraph, the call of the telephone, or the cry of the newsboy reveals some new fatality.
The Scriptures of truth tell us that only these events are signs of the approaching day of God. By means of these disasters God is warning the inhabitants of this earth of the things that are soon to take place. The great crisis of human history is fast approaching. Probation's hour will soon pass, and God to-day is speaking to men through fire and storm and earthquake and tidal wave, admonishing them of his coming judgments, and calling them to repentance.
But while we recognize that God is speaking in these ways, it is not for us to clothe ourselves with the robes of judgment or to climb into the judgment-seat and declare that this or that disaster has been visited upon men as a special act of God's judgment, or in consequence of their sins. When we begin to do this with particular disasters, then we shall begin to pass judgment upon our fellow men around us. We are warned against this in the thirteenth chapter of Luke:—
“There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Verses 1-5.
As already suggested, while we may see in these events an indication of the times in which we live, while we may recognize that through them God is seeking to warn the world, calling men to repentance, there is a lesson for us to learn as individuals. It is the lesson of God's forbearance to us. This lesson the Saviour likewise emphasizes in this same chapter:—
“He spake also this parable: A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.” Verses 6-9.
How many times has the Lord come seeking fruit in our lives and found none? Stern justice has demanded that we who have been so unfaithful to the light given to us be cut down, but mercy pleads for a lengthening of our probation. Again and again by God's grace have we been spared. We still live. The present is ours. Let us seek to make such a response to the call of divine providence as shall demonstrate that we have not received his gospel in vain.
F. M. W.
Notes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy
By W. A. S.
The Hand of God in History — No. 10
Notes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy
“He Shall Confirm the Covenant With Many for One Week”
The sixty-nine weeks of the prophetic period ended with the manifestation of the Messiah, the Anointed, in A. D. 27. Now followed the last week of the period—the final seven years. “In the midst” of that week the Messiah was to “cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” Dan. 9: 27.
Thus the time prophecy of the seventy weeks touches the greatest crisis of the ages—to be equaled only when that same Messiah comes again in power and glory, as King of kings and Lord of lords. And even then his chiefest glory is the cross. He is given a name above every name, because he humbled himself unto death, “even the death of the cross.”
In “the fulness of the time,” God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. That was a wonderful generation. When Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea, the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” The hand of God seemed laid upon the nations. Dean Prideaux says of the time of the birth of Christ:—
While this was a-doing in Judea, the temple of Janus was shut up at Rome. Their usage was to lay open its gates in the time of war, and to shut them up in times of peace. They had been shut only five times since the first building of Rome. . . . For at this time there was a general peace all over the world, and it continued for twelve years together; which was a proper prelude for ushering in His coming who was the Prince of Peace, Christ our Lord.—Connection of the Old and New Testaments, part 2, book 9.
Then came the year for the manifestation of the Messiah, and the word of God came to John in the wilderness, sending him forth to prepare the way of the Lord. This, according to the prophecy, was to come in A. D. 27, and we have seen how the facts of history fit the time of the prophecy.
It is interesting to note, also, that this time of John's ministry of preparation was a sabbatical year (Edersheim, “Life and Times of the Messiah,” Vol. I, page 278). From the autumn of A. D. 26 to the autumn of A. D. 27 was the year in which the whole land was to rest. And just then, upon the sabbath-like stillness, broke the voice of the wilderness prophet crying, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. . . . And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it!” “Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan.”
And the Lord of glory was revealed. The Spirit came upon Jesus at the baptism by John, anointing him as the Messiah,—the Anointed,—and the voice from heaven cried, “This is my beloved Son.”
“And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake.” John 1: 14, 15.
The exact month of the year of the baptism and anointing of Christ may not be fixed by the 483-year period, reaching from 457 B. C. to A. D. 27. In these measuring lines made up of years, the year is the unit; into greater detail the time prophecies do not ordinarily lead us, and it is fully confirmed that the event demanded by the prophecy fell within A. D. 27.
Yet, in this case, there is evidence for locating the time of the year with considerable accuracy. The last week of the prophetic period allotted to the Jewish people—the final seven years—runs on from the ending of the 483 years, in A. D. 27. But “in the midst” of this last seven-year period, the Messiah was to cause the sacrifices to cease. We know that the crucifixion was at the Passover, in the spring. As the spring of the year, therefore, was “in the midst” of the seven years, it is certain that the beginning of this last period must have been in the autumn. And this agrees exactly with the findings regarding the time of Ezra's arrival in Judea with his commission and the delivery of it to the king's officers, in the end of summer, or autumn. From the autumn of 457 B. C. to the autumn of A. D. 27, is exactly the 483-year period which was to reach to the anointing, the manifestation of the Lord Jesus at his baptism.
Three and a half years after the autumn of A. D. 27, then,—“in the midst of the week,”—the Messiah was to be cut off. This would bring the crucifixion in the spring of A. D. 31. And the facts of the gospel narrative fit exactly into the schedule.
After his baptism, in the autumn of A. D. 27, the first Passover attended by Jesus would be that of the next spring, A. D. 28, and the fourth Passover would be that of the crucifixion.
The Gospel of John supplies the list of these four feasts:—
1. John 2: 13. “And the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” (A. D. 28.)
2. John 5: 1: “After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” True, the text does not say this was a Passover, and authorities guess variously. But the prophetic period is a guide that establishes the necessity of four Passovers between the baptism and the cross. And the Passover was essentially the feast on which the Jewish believers were instructed to go “up to Jerusalem.” (A. D. 29.)
3. John 6: 4: “And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.” (A. D. 30.)
4. John 13: 1: “Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come.” (A. D. 31.)
The “midst of the week” has come; and the Messiah was to be “cut off, but not for himself.” Dan. 9: 26. He was cut off for all men, “for us.” “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Isa. 53: 5. W. A. S.
(To be concluded)
Note and Comment
Increase of Church Machinery
A MACHINE, however complicated or wisely designed, possesses no inherent power in itself. There must be the application of some motive power, like steam or electricity, to cause the wheels to revolve and the levers to move. So it is with the church of God. Organization of itself will accomplish but little. There may be wheels within wheels, as brought to view in the vision of Ezekiel, but it is the spirit within the wheels that produces results.
In proportion as the church of God departs from Christ, machinery is multiplied, and new organizations brought into existence. Speaking of this, the Journal and Messenger says:—
The multiplication of religious machinery goes on apace. . . . In addition to the regular church services, the prayer-meeting, and the missionary and other congregational societies, . . . within the last few years we have had the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, with its elaborate organization, the Forward Movement in missions, and the Brotherhood Movement, which had hardly got started when
reign, . . . undertook a very great work, that is, to build of himself the temple of God, and make it larger.'—'Antiquities,' book 15, chap. 11.
The eighteenth year of his reign, from his conquest of Jerusalem and the death of its former king, Antigonus, was the year A. U. [year of Rome] 735. (See Schaff's "History of the Christian Church," Vol. I, page 126.) Forty-six years added brings us to A. U. 781, or A. D. 28. Just the method of the Jews in reckoning their forty-six years of work on the temple may not be agreed upon; but Farrar says: "As the temple was begun in [the month] Kislev, the exact date is probably A. D. 28."—'Life of Christ,' chap. 13, note.11
it was in a measure crowded into the background by the Men and Religion Forward Movement, which is just now shouting a little louder than the others to get our attention. This is not the end of the catalogue, but rather only the beginning. New organizations for special purposes are being launched or proposed almost every week.
It is well to remember, not alone with reference to the great religious world, but as applied to ourselves as Seventh-day Adventists, that it is only as God operates through organization and official position that these agencies contribute to his glory and the promotion of his work. Let us realize that the spirit of the living creature must be in the wheels if the wheels are to do effective service for God.
Growth of Ritualism
THE ordinary reader has to look back only through his own experience to note the rapid growth of ritualism in the Christian church. Order and system and proper form have their place in religious services; but when forms and ceremonies are multiplied and exalted to the place where they supplant the true spirit of worship, they are to be deplored. The editor of the Western Recorder of May 2, 1912, deplores the growth of this ritualistic spirit in the Baptist churches:—
What has created this spiritually depraved taste among Baptists, and what has caused many who, at heart, detest this innovation, to submit in slavish silence, we are unable to say. That some among us are traveling the road that leads at last to Rome, there is little doubt. That they will reach Rome is a question, for many may stop at the last station (Episcopal) this side the Eternal City.
Of the real value of the ritualistic services in the attainment of salvation, the editor says:—
No church that fully believes in salvation by grace, can ever be led to play the rôle of the ritualist. Ritualism must be founded upon a theory of salvation by works, and divinity by doing. One who believes himself a sinner saved by grace, and has felt the pulsing power of the doctrine of God's sovereignty, can never bring himself to believe that he can worship God only by certain forms and formulas. He feels and knows that not at Gerizim, nor yet at Jerusalem, must he be forced to worship; but wherever the creature meets the Crucified, there he worships in spirit and in truth.
It is truly pitiful to see the famished soul, yearning for the bread of heaven, being fed with stones and dry, empty forms. Of the results of ritualism on the life of the church, the Recorder adds:— In many of our cities, notably in New York, Baptists have tried this sort of thing, and tried it, too, to their own undoing. In this city Baptists have steadily declined, while the denominations they have aped—Roman Catholic and Episcopal—have continually gained in membership. Our Catholic and Episcopalian friends have been too long and too successfully engaged in spiritual dressmaking and religious toggery, for Baptists to hope to compete with them at this late date. . . . Until there is a change in the character of New Testament institutions, let Baptists continue to worship God after the manner of their fathers.
The Religious Garb Question
IN speaking of the decision of President Taft in suspending the order of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs forbidding the wearing of a distinctive religious garb in the government Indian schools, the Northwestern Christian Advocate of April 24, 1912, says:—
“There is no need of any hearing of the ‘parties in interest’ to determine what the policy of the United States government ought to be. The dress of a religious order, whether it be that of a deaconess, a Sister of Charity, the Salvation Army, or the Volunteers, is perfectly appropriate in an institution supported by the order or its friends. It is perfectly inappropriate and intolerable in an institution supported by the government in the name of the whole people. No ‘hearings’ can change that, and the religious garb must go.”
We agree with the Advocate that there is no demand for a hearing on a question of this character. Whoever may be the ‘parties in interest,’ whether a humble minority or the thousands of an influential church, a question that involves the basic principles of our Constitution, the very liberties underlying our free government, calls for no delay of decision. It is a question of principle and of fact, and not one of caprice, nor one which should be determined by the judgment of interested parties.
The Church Facing a Crisis
That the Christian church to-day faces a crisis in its experience is the note being sounded from many quarters. Fred B. Smith, a representative of the Men and Religion Forward Movement, speaking to the Northern Minnesota Methodist Conference, according to the Minneapolis Tribune, emphasized this situation:—
We are in the midst of a crisis in the church. The Methodist Episcopal Church grew until six years ago; then it struck a dead level. If you go on as you are going, you will soon be a dead church. The Presbyterians are facing the same trouble, as are most of the Christian churches. Protestantism for three years has been losing ground.
Of the relation of the church to the masses, Mr. Smith says:—
College men are forsaking the church. We have lost our hold on the masses. What has caused it? Is it because we hold on to a few and let the masses go? Then perish the churches. We have cut out the authority of the Bible. We have rung out all reverence for thought and action. We are breeding a generation of people on ten-cent shows that has no desire to read a book or think a thought. We have cheapened the definition of sin. Hell has no terrors for men. Then we have resorted to all kinds of fantasies to produce conviction of sin, and have utterly failed. The church must drive the grafters out. Then more preachers will lose their jobs.
He charges that in too many instances the preachers are a joke. They feel that the world can be helped by quotations from Browning instead of from the Bible. They seek to become strong social factors rather than preachers of the word. He quotes one man as saying, “Our pastor can tell the bulliest story a man ever heard.” He then inquires, “Is that your preaching?”
Personalities Versus Principles
WE should always seek to distinguish between principles and men. When we forget the principles for which we are contending and take up real or fancied grievances, our controversy becomes one of personalities rather than a contention for principles. In a controversy where great principles are involved, it is painful indeed to see the participants forgetting thus to distinguish. When men occupying high positions in the state so far forget the dignity of the position which they hold, or have once held, as to become personal antagonists, it is painful in the extreme. Better is it for a Christian to suffer himself to be misrepresented and maligned than to sacrifice the dignity of Christian manhood. Even though we may radically differ from those around us, it pays to keep sweet. It pays to manifest toward the opposition the spirit of Christian courtesy. Failing in this, we not only lose the respect of those opposing us, but of many who, had we manifested the right spirit, might have been won to our way of thinking. Let us distinguish between principles and men.
The Blessings of Poverty
PRESIDENT TAFT is a strong supporter of the idea that the young man who works his way through college is better equipped than the one who has an abundance of money. In a speech delivered in St. Paul recently, he said:—
University men go out into the world without any money, as a rule, and those who have not money usually serve the public best. If there is anything that is a burden, if there is anything that is an obstacle, if there is anything that it is difficult for a young man to overcome, it is an income that will enable him to live without work. You look about, after you have been out of college twenty-five years, and pick out, if you can, a single man that has made a real success and had a great deal to live on when he left college. If you find him, he is entitled to a great deal more credit than you are if you have had to hustle in order to get enough to eat, for he has had to overcome more obstacles and more difficulties than you.