There seems to be at least one minister in Kansas City who believes the Bible sufficiently to know that the minister's place is not in politics, to know that a union of Church and State is abnormal and destructive to all spirituality and power, and he is Dr. S. M. Neel, pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church. The question first came up in the ministers' alliance of that city, over the adoption of a new constitution, permitting the alliance to interfere in civic affairs. The Kansas City Star of January 7 tells us that Dr. Neel opposed, and spoke in part as follows:—
“The State is an institution for a specific end; so is the church; but the church can not take up the sword and invade State and civic affairs. If we pass a resolution asking for some municipal reform, we must be able to back it up. The ministers' alliance has always failed when it has tried to invade politics. . . . The church and the Bible are losing their hold on the people. Only three churches in the civilized world have been able to gain any headway. Why is this condition?—Because the church insists on meddling in affairs which do not concern it. We must put up the sword, love men, reason with them from our pulpits, and when we accomplish that there ends our duty. People are drifting away from religion because we are not showing the true religion.
“We are going back to the Dark Ages, when the church interfered in governments. Considering what is being accomplished, one would think that God is dead and that Christ was still in the sepulcher. Yet we insist on meddling in State affairs. When we go into other fields than the church to work for God, we lose the battle. We have enough to do to straighten out our own congregations, instead of looking after other affairs.”
The constitution was adopted, however; and immediately thereafter Dr. Neel again voiced his sentiments, as reported in the Kansas City Star of a week later. From the report of that sermon we make the following excerpts:—
“The State is ordained of God for specific purposes differing totally from the church. The State is not to rule over one, but over all people; to protect a man in his rights against all comers. It does not stop to reason with a man who has gone wrong. The weapons of the State's warfare are carnal. The church is a divine institution, ordained of God for another and a totally distinct duty. That sole duty is to preserve and to proclaim the Word—the Gospel of God; ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel.’ That is its commission, and it has no other duty. The church has no sheriff, no constable. In the earlier times, when it became involved in the State, it forgot its divine institution and applied the fagot. We have ceased to preach the Gospel, because we have taken to telling people how to vote. . . . It is the preacher's duty to tell of God, and what God says of these things; to preach what the Bible says, not what he [the minister] thinks.
“There needs to be some changes. There can be no doubt of that. The only question is, Does the minister help the cause by going to the police court? All the preachers in town might go there, and it would be like shooting peas against a rawhide. They would make a deal of rattle, but nothing would come of it. You can not make men righteous by law. The penitentiary and the galleys never made men better. There is no reformatory power in the law. The object of the Saviour's coming into the world was to save men. Jesus Christ is not a reformer. It would be offensive to Him to be so called. . . . Christ was the Saviour of mankind. . . . You can not reach selfishness with the policeman's billy, and I am throwing away my time when I mix in politics instead of preaching you the Word of God.”
We call attention to the above for two reasons: (1) To sadly chronicle the prevailing drift toward a union of Church and State; (2) to record the utterances of one true soldier of God who dares to raise his voice against it. May God bless his words.
SPIRITUAL DECLENSION.
In a recent issue of the New York Christian Advocate there appeared a significant communication, with comments by the editor. The communication, with several paragraphs of the editor’s comments, is the following:—
“A successful minister in the West, a man of character, intelligence, and decision, writes this to the editor of the Christian Advocate:—
“I find that it is difficult to carry on evangelistic work after the Methodist fashion, that of altar or mourners’ bench, as many of our people, if not openly opposed to it, find it distasteful to them. Many have been admitted to the church without conversion, in the definite and specific sense in which we commonly use that word, and they are useless so far as promoting evangelistic work is concerned. Their influence is negatively against it, and the number of those who can be relied upon to assist effectively in the service at the altar is, I fear, becoming smaller every year.
“In one of the churches of which I was pastor there was a revival which resulted in the conversion of about one hundred persons, of whom perhaps one-half were at the time young members of the church. During the revival I met persons who had formerly taken a very active part in the church, but now lived elsewhere, and on informing them of what was going on, their first question was, “Where did you get your workers?” meaning by that men and women of the church who were willing to converse and pray with inquirers at the altar. The fact was that after earnest appeals from the pulpit to the members to assist when the altar was crowded with penitents, I was compelled to go down into the congregation and personally beg some of the older members to come forward and aid me in leading inquirers into light. Nor was I always able, even by such means, to induce them to do so. In some instances young people were converted whose parents had been communicants for years, and active in such church work as sewing societies, yet never a word was said to encourage them. It has not been unknown for a mother openly to scoff at the idea of a mourners’ bench and its attendant services. I have found that the wealthier and more influential members are usually those whose worldliness is most marked, and that some who were thoroly devoted and greatly useful before they had become wealthy, or in the way of becoming so, are now obstructionists. In some instances, if pastors earnestly appeal to them and remind them of the former days, they will leave the church. The departure of such is taken as an evidence of the pastor’s want of success and unfitness for his position. If, however, they remain they can easily bring about the transfer to them of some minister “who will preach the simple Gospel,” that is, who will never disturb them by a personal appeal in public or private, but descant upon the blessedness of the Gospel. In the minds of many, anything which bears on the lives of men and women outside of a general condemnation of the broad immoralities, “is not the Gospel.”
“Such a letter as this would not be of importance if it came from a pessimist, a censorious, frivolous, or indiscreet person, but as the judgment and observation of a consistent, faithful, educated, devoted pastor, it is a statement worthy of serious reflection. That the number of such churches is increasing there is reason to believe. Ministers are sometimes deflected from the right path by denunciations of earnest workers from persons high in authority, and by those who urge the necessity of being ‘up to date,’ who are never weary of asserting that ‘times have changed.’ When ministers are trying to awaken sinners and arouse and reclaim backsliders, it is discouraging indeed to see a large number of the best-known members conspicuous by absence; still more so to learn that some of them speak slightingly of the work, and of the faithful pastor as trying to imitate some objectionable evangelist. It is an error, however, to think that such inconsistencies are confined wholly to the wealthy, either those who are so, or those who think that they are so, or wish others to have that opinion of them. Some of the most useful workers for Christ are wealthy, and some not so are the most incorrigible obstructionists.”
“Every member of the church, rich, poor, or midway between, cultivated or unrefined, who is not in the habit of secret prayer, self-examination, self-denial, and communion with God, will have a distaste for earnest and persevering work in soul-saving. The difficulty is deep in their hearts; they are at ease in Zion; they are lovers of the world. Mere preaching will not arouse them; personal conversation, with frankness, kindness, and fervor, which the Spirit only can bestow, can open the eyes of such. It is easier to awaken open sinners than the backslidden.”
The facts set forth in the minister’s letter, as well as the statement of the editor of the Advocate that “the number of such churches is increasing,” are worthy of reflection. Every true Christian should do his part in sustaining faithful pastors, and thus help to remedy the evil. And, furthermore, we should study the Word of God so as to know the significance of these things. We have been taught by many earnest men and women that the world is getting better, and that it is to continue to get better and better till all will be converted. But such statements as the foregoing do not indicate anything of that kind.
In Luke 18:8 the Saviour asks the question, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” The Lord asks this question in a way to clearly indicate that before His coming the world would become faithless almost wholly, rather than that all will be converted to Him.
When we look at the real facts and discard all sentiment in the matter, we can see that the world is not sweeping on to that glorious conversion that has been so glowingly pictured. It would be grand, indeed, if such could be the case. But the Lord can not convert men unless they are willing to have it done, and there is no evidence that any remarkable numbers will come to the foot of the cross in reality. They may get their names on the church book, and have courage enough to stand up to be counted when the census taker is at hand, but they will not be real true Christians so as to be a power in the earth.
It is the counting of these large numbers of professed Christians who do not know anything about vital godliness that deceives men into the idea that the world is getting so much better. It is not numbers that count with the Lord so much as piety. Gideon’s little army, with the Spirit of God upon them, was far more powerful than all the great hosts of Israel who were cowering in terror before the enemy. We should learn how to look at facts, and weigh their significance.
Is It a Victory?
By Editor
—Is the anti-canteen law a victory? We wish most earnestly that it may prove to be; that the action of Congress might prove to be more than a spasm of righteousness. The Union Signal has this to say: “A feature of the anti-canteen victory which is a chief cause for rejoicing is the proof it gives that our nation recognizes the supreme authority of righteousness. On the side of the liquor traffic in this contest was almost unlimited wealth, controlling hundreds of thousands of votes. On the other side were multitudes of earnest men and women, who, as it now appears, made known their wishes in a manner so peremptory that legislators felt forced to comply with them. So long as righteousness can wield such power in this nation against the organized powers of evil, we need not fear that we have entered upon our national decay.”
But many of the congressmen fear to lose votes. As one of them remarked in 1893, when the Sunday question was up, “They will knife you at the polls,” that is, if one refused to vote for Sunday-closing. Many feel the same way over the canteen question. Fear of defeat at the polls has a tremendous effect on the average congressman in the cause of either good or evil. If for a good cause, his conversion is short-lived. But the anti-canteen law does not seem to be a victory if the following, from the same page of the Union Signal, is true:—
“Mida’s Criterion [liquor organ] boasts of the successful nullification of the anti-canteen law by Attorney-General Griggs, and continues: ‘An equally ingenious lawyer could get around the new provision.
There is no penalty for violating this law. It is not self-operative, but calls for action by the Secretary of War, before it becomes effective. Neither does it cover giving away liquor or bartering it, as ordinary liquor laws do.’ These utterances are suggestive of the evasions of which the liquor power and its emissaries are capable.”
Of what good is such a law? And how does it prove anything better for the country?
THE BOY AS A SON.
By Mrs. M. C. Du Bois
A WISE son maketh a glad father; but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. “A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.” Prov. 10:1; 17:25.
What parent has not felt the truth of these words of “the wise man”? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” So we conclude that a wise son is a Christian; but a foolish, wayward son always brings grief to the hearts of his parents.
The brother has his part in the homemaking, just as truly as the sister has hers. He can be a joy or sorrow to his parents, a blessing or a curse; and which it shall be depends largely upon the training he is given. Many parents find their boys hard to manage; so they give them the loose rein, and let them manage themselves, with little or no home training. Many a bright, headstrong boy has made shipwreck of himself because he has not been restrained and taught self-control.
If parents expect the boy to pay, they must invest in him time, earnest prayer, care, and painstaking. If father is taken up with politics, business, and pleasure, and mother with her housework or sewing-circle, or is all interested in Katie and Jennie, and has no time to devote to her boy, is it to be wondered at should he take the downward road? When a farmer has a colt or a calf from which he expects to reap a good profit, he gives it the best of care; but how often is the boy sadly neglected, left to follow his own will, and wander in idleness! Then we hear the parents cry out in bitterness of soul, “O that boy! he is not worth his salt.” Who is to blame?
To be a good son the boy must be taught obedience even in the smallest things. He should be taught self-denial, also to respect the rights of each member of the family, even the domestic, if one is employed.
The model boy is willing to do his part, and is no shirk. He will not snarl if asked to bring a pail of water, to fill the wood-box, or to do anything in the line of housework that may be required of him; for the boy should be taught to make himself useful in the home, and it is not belittling to any boy to know how to cook and to do general housework. The boy who will see his mother or sister bring in the wood and water, dig the potatoes, or do other similar work, is lacking in respect for mother or sister. The mother who brings up her boy to sit around in idleness, to be waited upon, makes a sad mistake.
A boy has rights which should be respected in the family. He ought to have a room all his own if it is possible, furnished as well as the parents’ means will allow. Most generally anything is thought good enough for the boys’ room. Old cast-off furniture, a dingy carpet (often no carpet at all), faded curtains, a faded and worn quilt for his bed, walls bare, no bright, tasteful ornaments—such is the picture of more than one boy’s room. Is it any wonder that he slips away from his room to go “just a little way down street,” where the saloon is fitted up to entice just such boys? Boys love pretty things, and the parents who invest something to make home attractive to their boys will, I believe, find it less trouble to keep them at home.
The boy as a son should be a comfort and help in his home. The father ought to be able to look upon him with joy and pride, as the one to take his place and carry out his unfinished plans. The mother should be happy to point to him and say, “Yonder is my son, a joy and comfort to my aged heart.” A wise son will not bring the gray hairs of his father and mother in sorrow to the grave.
MRS. M. C. DU BOIS.
Grand Ledge, Mich.
WHAT THE OPEN WINDOW DID.
By Caroline F. Needham
The trouble began that morning over a very small matter, as usual. Tom declared that Joe had taken his mittens; Joe declared he had not; and so the quarrel began. The other children, straining their shrill voices to the highest pitch, told all they knew, or did not know, about those lost mittens; mama scolded; baby cried; and so the quarrel went on.
Suddenly everybody began to shiver, “O-O-O!” for it seemed as tho rivers of ice-cold water were running down everybody’s back.
“For goodness’ sake!” cried mama, who was the first to recover herself, “what are you doing, Lettie, opening that window directly on the baby’s head, and the thermometer ten degrees below zero! Are you crazy? Close it at once! Do you want us all to have pneumonia?”
“No, O, no!” stammered tender-hearted little Lettie. “I didn’t think. I only thought how nice it would be if I could only let some of the crossness out of the room.”
All that day mama went about her work with a thoughtful face. Now and then she had fits of thinking, at which times she would stare at the window, and burst out into a merry laugh. Then she grew strangely sober again.
The next morning four eager children were scrambling after hats, coats, and missing mittens, for the skating was fine, and they wanted to have lots of fun before school began. They could not find this, they could not find that, and so the quarrel began. Such pushing and scolding and running about for things that should have been in their places! Joe was behindhand as usual. He was tying his shoes, and hurrying with all his might to make up for lost time, when snap! went his shoestring. “Now see what you made me do!” he snarled, at no one in particular; but Tom, who was standing near, retorted angrily, “I didn’t!” Then, “You did!” and, “I didn’t,” went dodging each other about the room. Puss came up and rubbed her nose sympathetically against Joe’s legs, but Joe pushed her rudely, and cried, “Get out, you old cat!” and pussy, who was not an old cat by any means, but a sensitive, high-tempered kitten, backed off at a safe distance, arched her back, and showed two rows of gleaming white teeth, as much as to say, “Call me names again, if you dare!”—and so the quarrel went on.
Suddenly, as on the morning before, rivers of ice-cold water began to run down everybody’s back. All turned toward the window. Yes, it was wide open; but there stood, not Lettie, but mama herself, smiling radiantly.
“O-O-O!” shivered the children. “O-O-O mama, shut the window quick, please!”
“Shut that window!” demanded Joe, who, being directly in front of it, felt the full force of the chilly wind. “Shut it! My fingers are so numb now that I can’t tie my string. Well, don’t shut it then,” he growled. “No matter if I do catch pneumonia and die.”
“I think it would be far better for us all to get the pneumonia and die than to be snapping this way at one another every morning,” said mama. “Lettie’s idea of airing out was a good one indeed. I’m letting out the crossness, that’s all.”
Up flew another window, and still another.
The children ran out, buttoning their coats as they went. Joe retreated to the register, where puss already had taken refuge, and she didn’t push him away, either, but moved over a little, as much as to say, “Plenty of room for both.” Here Joe warmed his fingers and mended his shoestring. Then he too darted from the chilly room.
This was the beginning of what was afterward known in that family as the “airing-out process.” To make it effectual it had to be carried on more or less all winter; but by spring-time, altho there were just as many children, and the house that held them was as small as ever, it seemed to the inmates that it was twice as large as before, so well did peace know how to make room for everybody. Confusion packed up and left for good; but her influence still remained, and sometimes when, “You did!” and, “I didn’t!” forgot themselves, as they did once in a while, they were soon called to order, for some little voice would be sure to pipe up:—
“Mama, hadn’t we better begin to air out?”
And so my story is done.—Caroline F. Needham.
THE SECRET OF HIS SUCCESS.
ONLY twelve years ago Mr. Charles M. Hays, the new president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, held a clerical position. Now he receives the highest salary paid to any railroad president in America—probably in the world. This is said to be $55,000, or $5,000 more than is paid to the President of the United States. The peculiarity of Mr. Hays’ mental equipment which enables him to command this splendid income is well illustrated by a certain bunch of old letters reposing in the pigeon-hole of the desk of an official who was a subordinate to Mr. Hays when the latter was general manager of the Wabash road. Some of these epistles are only two or three lines in length, but not one of them is too short to contain a sentence of official commendation of a kind calculated to stir the heart of the most indifferent subordinate. The ability to bestow approval with the same discernment and promptness with which he metes out criticism11is held to be the secret of his phenomenal success. But the most revolutionary practise which he carried into effect on the big Canadian road was the “open door” policy. Not only did Mr. Hays keep his own door open to all who had legitimate and important business, but he also saw to it that the doors of the officials under him were broadly open to the public. Mr. Hays is only forty-four years of age. He was born in Rock Island, Illinois.—Saturday Evening Post.
LOOK UP.
By Floyd D. Raze
WEARY one, in your toilsome endeavor,
Weak and faint by the long, rugged way,
Be of cheer, for some comfort comes ever
To him who has learned how to pray.
Look abroad, ’tis the desert doth bound you;
Look down, and the arid earth’s there;
Look up, and a light falls around you,
And a voice speaks in answer to prayer.
Tho the light is a ray dimly gleaming,
Tho the voice is a whisper at night,
A beacon doth shine in its seeming,
And the voice sounds a trumpet of might.
Charlotte, Mich. FLOYD D. RAZE.
WHERE VIOLINS ARE MADE.
In the village of Mittenwald, in the heart of the Bavarian highlands, live the men who manufacture the greater part of the world's supply of violins. Mittenwald has taken the place of Cremona, altho it may take another 100 years before its violins can be mentioned in the same breath with those of the famous Italian town. Of the 1,800 inhabitants of the village, over 800 are exclusively occupied in the manufacture of violins, and the output reaches the incredible figure of 50,000 violins per annum. They are exported to all countries in the world, the better instruments going to England and America. One organization of makers alone exports 15,000. Each family of violin makers has its own particular trade secret, a sort of trick of the trade, handed down from father to son. Outsiders, and still more rival makers, are not permitted in a workshop that is not theirs. The people of Mittenwald have an interesting violin school where the village boys are instructed in the general technical departments of violin building.
The course lasts three years and embraces, in addition, the art of drawing, singing, and playing on the violin. In the building of a violin much is left to the individuality of the builders. It is seldom that two violins are exactly alike in every particular. The villagers of Mittenwald are generally of opinion that the varnish with which the instrument is covered is of the first importance, and attribute the fine tone of the violins made by Stradivarius, Guarnerius, and others to a secret of varnish which has evidently been lost forever. Mittenwald uses maple wood for its violins, brought from the distant forests of Dalmatia and Bosnia, and pine wood of a certain quality and resinousness found only in the neighboring forests. The old-looking violins seen in many a music shop window are not infrequently brand-new instruments from Mittenwald. The blackness and shabbiness, the rubs and scratches, the Italian names of makers inside, and the picturesque date—let us say 1743—are often the work of the ingenious fiddle makers of this remote idyllic village in Bavaria. “We must supply the market,” they say, in extenuation of this class of business; “if we do not, some one else will.”—London Leisure Hour.
THE FAMOUS ASPHALT LAKE.
ASPHALT is being dug out of the famous tar lake of Trinidad—the most notable existing source of the material in the world—at the rate of eighty thousand tons per annum. There are still four and a half million tons in sight, but at this rate the supply could not last long were it not that the lake of bitumen referred to is receiving a constant accretion from the bowels of the earth. This accretion is reckoned as amounting to about twenty thousand tons yearly, and would suffice to restore the lake to its original condition if it were allowed to remain undisturbed for a few years.
This wonderful lake of pitch has an area of one hundred and fourteen acres, and recent soundings made in the middle of it have shown its depth to be one hundred and thirty-five feet in that part. Near the center it is semi-liquid and bubbling, but elsewhere it has so hard a surface that a man on horseback can ride over it without danger of breaking thru the crust. Scattered over its surface are a number of small islands which have no proper roots in the earth, so to speak, but are composed merely of accumulations of soil, tho trees of considerable size grow on some of them. These islands are not stationary, but are carried slowly from place to place by the movements of the lake. Now and then one of them is entirely engulfed.—Saturday Evening Post.
NOVEL KILLED.
Some years ago a young lady began to visit her pastor’s study as a religious inquirer. It was during a revival, and on every hand younger friends were coming to Christ. But there she stood at the very threshold of the kingdom, wistfully looking over, as if her feet were chained. She made no advance.
Her pastor and friends were equally puzzled. Prayer was offered for her, and the plainest instructions given; but she remained unmoved excepting to regret that she could not become a Christian. At last, after three months’ labor and anxiety, her pastor said: “I can do nothing with Sophia L.; she is perfectly unmanageable. I doubt if she will ever yield to the claims of the Gospel.”
“What is the trouble? Can you not discover the obstacle in her way?” was asked.
“I find she is an inveterate novel reader, and I have come to the conclusion that this will keep her out of the kingdom.”
“Can she not be persuaded to give up her novels?”
“That is not the point entirely. She has wasted her sensibilities over unreal objects so long—so continually reversed right and wrong, looking at vice in the garb of virtue, and of virtue in that of unworthiness and injustice, that she has destroyed her moral sense. She assents to truth, but seems to have no power to grasp it; she knows what is right, but has no energy of will to do it. Her mind is diseased and enervated, and I fear hopelessly so.”—Cynosure.
ANSWER TO PRAYER.
WASHINGTON ALLSTON, the celebrated artist and poet, gives us an interesting account of an occurrence in his own life which he regarded as an instance of especial aid from a divine source.
Having married a sister of the eminent Dr. Channing, he made his second visit to Europe, and settled in London as an artist. He met with little success, and for a time was at a loss for the means of procuring the necessaries of life. Reflecting one day, with a feeling of almost desperation, upon his condition, he found himself all at once filled with the hope that God would help him if he only asked His help. So he locked his door, withdrew to a corner of his room, and falling on his knees prayed earnestly for help from on high.
While thus kneeling in supplication he was aroused by some one knocking at the door. He opened it to a stranger, who announced himself as the Marquis of Stafford, and inquired if his painting of the angel Uriel was sold. Receiving a negative reply, the nobleman paid him four hundred pounds for the beautiful production, and was so pleased that he introduced the poor artist to the leading nobility and gentry, and thus to both fame and fortune. Allston never looked upon this as a mere happy coincidence; but the feeling that led him to prayer, and the immediate relief which followed, he always regarded as the direct interposition of God in his behalf in the hour of his need. As the result he was led to a Christian life, and fixed devotional habits became predominant traits in his character to the end of his life.—Brotherhood Star.
A Splendid Opportunity
Offered to Those Desiring an Education
Special Arrangements have been made whereby we are enabled to offer a free scholarship for one year in any of the following institutions:—
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