“I THOUGHT that the course of the Christian to heaven
Would be bright as the summer and glad as the morn.
Thou showed’st me the path; it was dark and rough,
All rugged with rocks, all tangled with thorn.
I dreamed of celestial rewards and renown;
I asked for the palm branch, the robe, and the crown;
I asked, and thou showed’st me a cross and a grave.”
“When Satan rebelled, why was he not destroyed at once? Why has he been permitted to live and to cause such terrible suffering and such frightful woes to come upon the world?”
How often such questions are asked! How often the justice and love of God are impugned when an answer is not speedily forthcoming! Yet it is a fact that in sparing Satan and in permitting suffering and sorrow to fill the world through Satan’s acts, God is proving not only his infinite wisdom, but his wonderful love. It is a fact, too, that the necessities of the situation compelled the Father to spare Satan, for a season, and allow sin to develop and be seen as “exceeding sinful.” There was no other way through which God could reveal himself so that his character could be comprehended by angels and by men.
“Even when he was cast out of heaven, Infinite Wisdom did not destroy Satan. Since only the service of love can be acceptable to God, the allegiance of his creatures must rest upon a conviction of his justice and benevolence. The inhabitants of heaven and of the worlds, being unprepared to comprehend the nature or consequences of sin, could not then have seen the justice of God in the destruction of Satan. . . . For the good of the entire universe through ceaseless ages, he must more fully develop his principles, that his charges against the divine government might be seen in their true light by all created beings, and that the justice and mercy of God and the immutability of his law might be forever placed beyond all question.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, page 42.
In all things God overrules for good. In permitting sin and suffering to continue, he uses both to rescue, to purify, and to prepare man for an eternal life in his presence.
“Christ can look on the misery of the world without a shade of sorrow for having created man. In the human heart he sees more than sin, more than misery. In his infinite wisdom and love he sees man’s possibilities, the height to which he may attain. He knows that even though human beings have abused their mercies and destroyed their God-given dignity, yet the Creator is to be glorified in their redemption.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. VII, page 269.
Finite minds can exercise judgment only by means of comparison. Satan accused God of being unjust, tyrannical, and cruel. The angels had no means of ascertaining the truth or falsity of the charges. They knew nothing of evil. They knew God only as a God of love. They had never witnessed an act of mercy on his part, and knew nothing of the nature of mercy. Its exercise did not become a possibility until after the introduction of sin. Angels knew not that they were under a law until sin made it apparent and revealed Satan as a transgressor of the law of God, and a being needing an exercise of mercy. The grace of God then became apparent, and the mercy of God found a channel of usefulness.
“The angels look with awe and amazement upon the mission of Christ to the world. They marvel at the love that moved him to give himself a sacrifice for the sins of men.” “Angels marveled that Christ should undertake what seemed to them a hopeless task. They marveled that God could tolerate a race so sinful. They could see no room for love.”—Id., pages 266, 225.
If God had stricken Satan at once before sin developed, there would always have remained a query regarding the truth or falsity of his charge. Possibly this might in time have become a seed which, germinating, would result in another rebellion. With the introduction of sin it became necessary that God should be comprehended not only as a God of love, but also as a God of mercy.
“God’s love for the fallen race is a peculiar manifestation of love,—a love born of mercy; for human beings are all undeserving. Mercy implies imperfection of the object toward which it is shown. It is because of sin that mercy was brought into active exercise.”—Id., page 264.
And so we read:—
“Take away suffering and need, and we should have no way of understanding the mercy and love of God, no way of knowing the compassionate, sympathetic Heavenly Father.”—Id., page 226.
Freedom to Choose Truth or Error
"It is not the plan of God to compel men to yield their wicked unbelief. Before them are light and darkness, truth and error. It is for them to decide which to accept."
Doing the Work Before Our Eyes
By William Ambrose Spicer
It is good to go among our people in the conferences, this camp-meeting season, and see what the Lord is doing for those that seek him. Everywhere one finds testimony to the fact that the Lord is doing things out of the ordinary to hasten on the work and to bring truth-seeking souls into the light. His word is fulfilling, and joy fills the hearts of those who are sharing in the soul-winning work of these earnest times.
More and more we see it,—a quick work,—the fruitage springing up quickly from a book sold or through the tract or periodical placed with prayerful faith and a longing to help. The use of the simple means within everybody's reach prevails by the blessing of the Lord, and the time calls for everybody to be doing something on the right hand and on the left.
What the Lord spoke by the prophets long ago concerning his closing work in the earth is in process of fulfilment before our eyes.
The prophet John, in vision of this work, heard the judgment-hour message being given "with a loud voice" in all the world. Rev. 14:7. It was but sixty-four years ago that our first paper came from the press—the little sheet Present Truth, issued by James White at Middletown, Conn., July, 1849. That seemed a loud voice to the little company of believers then. Heartily they thanked God for this means of hastening the work forward; and with prayers and tears of joy they dedicated that first paper to God, and sent it forth bearing the message of the prophecy. But at that stage we could hardly say that the message was going "with a loud voice." The voice of the message was to swell into heavier volume to meet the prophecy.
Now the printing-presses are running in all parts of the world day and night, printing this advent message. Some time ago, in another land, I stood in the doorway of a pressroom, where six or eight presses were running off publications in various languages. In one of our publishing houses in America, it would not have seemed so striking a view; but in that land over the sea it was a soul-stirring thing to listen to the whirr and the rattle of the machinery, and to see the newly printed pages falling by the thousand from the delivery frames of the presses. "Like the leaves of autumn," I thought, true enough.
And now, wherever one may attend publishing meetings in the conference gatherings and camp-meetings, we find the workers in this department everywhere sounding the cry of "$2,000,000 worth of publications in 1913." The prospects are that the distribution will reach it. This is only the aim for the current year, by no means the limit to be satisfied with. It is achieved by the efforts of a few, comparatively. When all are as active as the few, far greater publicity will be given to the message by scattering the publications; and this always means the development of a spirit of inquiry that will call for personal interviews and public preaching.
And this is not a work limited to one region or country. The message is going "with a loud voice" on every continent, just as the prophet described it long ago. Happy is the believer whose voice is blending fully with and helping to swell the volume of this loud cry of the third angel's message, which is to sound out yet more mightily as the work closes.
W. A. S.
God's Book and His Controversy
By C. M. S.
IN a number of places in the Old Testament, Jehovah declares that he has a controversy with his people. In each such instance the reason of the controversy is plainly stated. God's people have failed to heed his warning, have turned away from his counsel, have turned their backs upon his Word and his law. In the vanity of their own hearts they have done this; in the loftiness of their own minds they have set their desires above God's purpose. God does not consider their course as a wise one, or conducive to their own safety. While speaking of this very demonstration on the part of his people, he says: —
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children." Hosea 4: 6.
They who would be true instructors of the people are involved, with the people, in this unwise and dangerous attitude toward his Word; for he says, "And it shall be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will requite them their doings." Verse 9. Considering its light, this generation of ours stands without a rival as a rejecter of God's Word, and will therefore be judged with most severe judgment.8
If God had a controversy with his people anciently because of their attitude toward his Word, surely in our day he has no less a controversy, when in so many of the great churches of the various nations, in so many of the popular religious journals, and in the theological seminaries and ministerial associations the Bible is discounted, and discredit is cast upon its most fundamental teachings. This is the age of great Bible distribution, of great pretense to piety, and with it all, doubt and infidelity. The powers from above are working, and the powers from beneath are not idle. While God has given us his Word, man has set himself up as its censor to declare what portions are true and what untrue, what necessary and what unnecessary, what portion wheat and what portion chaff and foul seed.
In taking such a position, human beings have put themselves in the same attitude toward God as did Lucifer when he held the position of the covering cherub and determined to put himself above God himself. To sit in judgment upon God's own Word is to put oneself above God, and lay claim to greater wisdom and knowledge than he had who made the Book and inspired its wonderful counsels, prophecies, principles, and promises.
The most ingenious trap that Satan has set for this age is the teaching of the human race to doubt God's Word. If he can teach men to believe that the precious promises of God's Book are founded upon nothing, then those promises will fail to appeal to mankind. That which would have saved them will then be cast aside, and they will pin their faith to that which will compass their destruction. He is playing a masterly hand in this particular, and with all too many persons he is winning. It was a masterly stroke to make the accredited ministers of the gospel his chief instruments in the deception. He no longer needs his Paines, his Rousseaus, his Voltaires, and his Ingersolls. He is reaching a much more select audience in the new way. Through the new method, he is putting doubts in the hearts of men who might otherwise teach other men to believe to the saving of their souls. In that manner he dams up the fountains before they have opportunity to spring forth, and his harvest of tares is therefore much more abundant.
It is the design of God that his Word hid in the heart of men shall be a continual shield to them against sin. The inspired penman says: "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Ps. 119: 11. But Satan is determined that men shall not have such a shield. He is therefore using every possible means to prevent men from receiving God's Word into the heart. The apostle John writes: "I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the evil one." 1 John 2: 14. That is what Satan does not want; therefore the warfare to cast doubt, discredit, and reproach upon the Word of God. But as his purposes are never in the interest of men, it is absolutely necessary that they should perceive the deception, understand its purpose, receive the Word, and "overcome the evil one."
The psalmist tells us also that God's Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Ps. 119: 105. As the purpose of God's lamp and light is to show men the way of salvation, to dispel the darkness created by the adversary of souls, we can understand the reason of Satan's bitter warfare against it.
God has set his Word upon the very pinnacle of honor and glory. That was where Satan designed to put himself. The psalmist says: "Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." Ps. 138: 2. Is it any wonder, then, that he who had determined to exalt his throne above the stars of God, and make himself like the Most High (Isa. 14: 12-14), should strike his fiercest blows and level his deadliest shafts against that which God chose to put where Satan wanted to be? Knowing Satan's purpose and God's exaltation of his Word, the warfare now going on in this world against God's Word is easily understood.
Now he who would be a true child of God must do with God's Word just what God did with it — exalt it. That will draw the fire and the antagonism of Satan; but with God's Word as our shield and buckler, with God's Word hid in the heart that we may not sin against him, with the love of the truth in our souls so that God will not permit us to believe a lie, we shall be able to withstand his attacks, and to come off more than conquerors through him that loved us, and there will be no controversy between us and the one who gave heaven's best gift to purchase heaven for us.
Editorial
By Editor
The Measure of Life
HEAVEN does not estimate nor measure the value of life by days or years. Above the time factor come in the motives and purposes which possess the soul. Many lives of unusual length have been lived in vain because lived for self and for selfish purposes. Many lives short in years have set in operation mighty and far-reaching influences.
Of Abel the record is that he "being dead yet speaketh." The lives of many today, though closed so far as the record of the world is concerned, are still speaking, and the harvest borne through all the centuries will redound to the credit of the individual through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteous shall eat of the fruit of their doings. Isa. 3:10. Of those who die under the third angel's message it is declared, "Their works do follow them." Rev. 14:13.
No righteous life ever has been or ever will be lived in vain. Let us estimate the value of life, not by its length, but by its consecration to God, by the purposes and motives which possess it, by the manner in which it links itself with the eternal principles of right and truth. Truth never dies, and a life linked with truth and identified with it in God's great purpose is eternal in its destiny and everlasting in its influence.
"Is the World Ready for His (Christ's) Return?"
By F. M. Wilcox
THIS is the heading of an article in the Christian Herald of August 6. The question is raised by a correspondent of the Herald in its issue of June 11, who makes the following inquiries:—
If Jesus were to appear now, for a brief sojourn, to encourage his people, would he find the world better or worse? We know he would find his church, which he left but a little nucleus of believers, a great world-wide organization; but how would he regard its divisions, its antagonisms, its jealousies, its war of creeds? Would he find the true faith and the Holy Spirit in the churches generally? And what of other conditions—the great mass of non-churchgoers, the servitude of the laboring classes, the corruption of politics, the growth of crime, the luxury and extravagance of wealth, the indifference of the multitudes unawakened to spiritual things, the grossness of the theaters, the white slave traffic? Would he find that the gospel of peace and love and brotherhood had taken due root as he hoped and prayed that it would? And would he find that the professing church had done its whole duty in carrying the light to the heathen?
A number of the readers of the Herald express their views of the present situation in the world. One correspondent in Oklahoma believes that Christ would find the world slowly but surely being won to himself. Where he left but a few believers two thousand years ago, he would find a great multitude who have accepted his gospel. This writer says:—
He would find—and how sad it is to admit it—that the tribe of Judas had increased, and that some still would sell him for the price of the meanest slave. He would also find that the tribe of Paul, of John, of Luke, of Matthew, of Peter, had increased to millions. A great mass of non-churchgoers existed in the time of Jesus. They would pay no heed to him then, as now. All that the church can do is to earnestly strive and preach Christ crucified.
Another contributor expresses the conviction that Christ would find the world advancing materially but declining spiritually, and quotes several scriptures which point out conditions which the Word declares will exist in the last days. A gentleman in Massachusetts believes that "the signs of the times indicate that we are nearing a great crisis which even this generation may be privileged to witness." From Colorado a reader of the paper writes that if Christ were to come now, he would find much to cause him rejoicing, and much also to give him grief of heart.
Prophetically our Master raised this same question two thousand years ago, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" He himself has told us in his own words and by the inspiration of his Spirit the conditions which will exist. The Scriptures declare—
1. That the same conditions which prevailed in the world in the days of Noah and Lot will be found in the earth immediately preceding the second coming of Christ. Luke 17:26-30.
2. That in the last days men's hearts will fail them for fear as they contemplate the things that are coming upon the earth in the way of war and strife and general destruction. Luke 21:25, 26.
3. That the last days of earth's history will be marked by strained relations between the rich and the poor; by defrauding labor of its lawful reward; by treasuring up ill-gotten gains. James 5:1-8.
4. That the nations of earth will be engaged in unfriendly rivalry, and that the fruits of industry and commerce will be made to pay tribute to extensive preparations for war. Joel 3:9-16.
5. Finally, that the great professed church of Christ itself, in place of standing as the sentinel of danger and giving the trumpet a certain sound warning men of the impending crisis, will be careless and indifferent, cherishing in its midst sins of an ungodly world, and loving pleasure more than the service of God, having a form of godliness, but in its backslidden state denying the power thereof. 2 Tim. 3:1-5.
These are the conditions which the Scriptures declare will exist in the world just preceding the coming of the Lord. We find these conditions existing around us at the present time. Each year they become more intensified. They indicate that we have reached the last period of the world's history, that we are living in that generation which is to witness the dissolution of all things.
No, the world is not ready for Christ's return. The world will not be ready for his return when he comes. Upon the great careless throng the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.
But some will be found scattered here and there throughout the earth who will be waiting and watching for the Lord's return. They are the children of the light. Regarding the times and seasons, noting the increasing signs of the last great day, they have prepared themselves for the grand consummation. Washing their robes in the blood of the Lamb, standing complete in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, they own him as their father and their God, and are recognized by him as members of his own family in that great day. Isa. 25:8, 9. F. M. W.9
Twenty Cents a Week
By J. L. Shaw
FOR a number of years our mission fields depended for their financial support upon what was known as the Ten-cent-a-week Fund. Later, owing to the great demands which came from the mission fields for more men and means, an increase was proposed, and in answer to this call our people responded loyally, and an average of nearly fifteen cents a member was raised last year.
When we came up to the last General Conference, funds were available for sending out to the mission fields more than one hundred and fifty workers. This was a very remarkable undertaking. Never before in our history have so many been appointed to service in other lands. It is very probable that our denomination is sending out this year more missionaries than any other Protestant society in North America, which is a manifest mark of the rapid advancement of this movement. Going eastward and westward and southward, laborers are now making their way across the seas to various lands, to strengthen the work in hand, and reach out into unoccupied territory.
We are getting letters from the fields which show their great appreciation of the loyal way in which our people in the home land are enabling them to go forward with their work. In some countries one laborer, in a trying climate, has been endeavoring to do the tasks of two or three men. To toil singly and alone, with such a pressure of duties, is a great strain, and the news that funds are in the treasury, that men are on the way, that they will soon be relieved and have associates to counsel with them and help them, is a source of satisfaction which only those who have passed through such experiences can fully appreciate.
But now that so many are answering the call to the regions beyond, there comes a greater need of providing still more funds for their support and maintenance. The support of a missionary and his family, from the time he gets into a heathen land until he becomes acquainted with the language and is able to acceptably teach the people the truth in their own language, entails an expense of two or three thousand dollars. And yet what is that compared to the great possibilities before those who have for the people the message of God for this time?
In order to enlarge our mission work at home and abroad, at the last General Conference a resolution was passed raising the fund from fifteen to twenty cents a week. We are glad to hear of the loyal and enthusiastic way in which the twenty-cent-a-week plan is being received by our people in attendance at various camp-meetings in this country. It shows their interest in the rapid extension of this message in all parts of the world.
If twenty cents a member can be realized from year to year, it will mean that our sanitariums and schools, which are doing so much to help forward the cause of missions, will be able, little by little, to be relieved of the indebtedness which they are now carrying. The work is all one. The institutions in the home land are the means of preparing laborers for the mission fields. If we go to Africa, India, or China, and visit our mission stations, we shall find perhaps at one station a nurse who received her training at one of our sanitariums. There she received her incentive to dedicate her life to God's service, and there she received her preparation and training for the mission field. At another station we meet a teacher, or a minister, who received his education at one of our colleges. He looks upon the school which he attended as the means in God's hands of preparing him for the work that he is now doing. And so we might go from one mission station to another, finding in nearly every place those who are the product of institutions in the home land that have prepared young people at great cost, involving sacrifice and debt. Is it not, therefore, right that these institutions should be regarded as a part of the great missionary enterprise, to be helped, sustained, and strengthened for the God-given work entrusted to their care?
It is not because our schools are paying high wages to their teachers that debt has come; but notwithstanding earnest efforts to carry on their work, debt in some instances has resulted. Our educational institutions differ from those of other denominations, which oftentimes have wealthy donors and benefactors, who provide endowments. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to realize at this place in our work more fully than ever before the character, sphere, and support of the institutions in the home land which are providing recruits for the extension of the cause in the regions beyond. They are the mills that provide the missionary product to extend the work.
Our efforts in Asia and Africa have only begun. We have, as it were, skirted the coast line, and established a few stations; but the great duty of proclaiming the gospel of present truth in heathen lands lies still before us, and efficient laborers will be our continuous need until the end. As the institutions are strengthened and released from debt, new courage and vigor will be realized by them, and more laborers, better trained for various lines of gospel endeavor, will surely be the result.
The twenty-cent-a-week plan is a wise provision. As every individual in every church in every conference understands the plan, and enthusiastically responds to this call of freedom to our institutions, the whole mission enterprise of the denomination will be relieved. Little by little they will work out of debt, and we shall be a free people to hasten on in every land the completion of the work. May God greatly stir our hearts to this end, that wise plans, enthusiastically promoted, be laid in every conference.
J. L. SHAW.
Note and Comment
By Editor
The Balkan War
THE great cost in men and means of the strife in the Balkan Peninsula during the last year, with the present situation and outlook, is summarized by the Washington Herald of August 12, as follows:—
Peace has been concluded between Roumania and Bulgaria. By the treaty of Bucharest the former secures a considerable accession of territory south of the Danube, including the strong fortress of Silistria on that river and the port of Baltjik on the Euxine. This is in compensation for part of Bessarabia and the (Kilia) mouth of the Danube taken from Roumania by Russia in 1878. Bucharest thus is to have an approach to navigable salt water by a shorter route than at present over the fever-laden marshes of the Dobrudja.
Bulgaria's new frontier toward Servia follows the watershed to the west of the Struma River to the town of Strumitza. In the main, this line concurs with the eastern boundary of the vilayet of Monastir, all of which, it would seem, falls to Servia.
Greece gets practically the whole of Macedonia, together with the ports of Kavala and Orfano, east of the peninsula of Chalkis and the important harbor of Saloniki. The city of Seres, recently the scene of a horrible massacre, also is a valuable prize drawn by the Greeks.
The London peace conference has fixed the boundaries of Albania toward Servia and Montenegro. The southern frontier still remains to be determined. But it is settled that Greece will not be permitted to extend her conquests beyond Janina. Greece claims the islands in the Ægean Sea, including Lemnos, guarding the entrance to the Bosporus.10Ethnically, also historically, these islands are Hellenic, but geographically a number of them are part of Asia Minor. Others again were captured and occupied by Italy during the Tripolitan war, but were to be returned to Turkey. It is not so sure that Italy would be willing to cede them to a possible future commercial and naval rival in the Mediterranean, as Greece may become.
Enver Pasha's boast that Turkey intends to retain Adrianople is not likely to cause any difficulties, for the sultan has been given to understand that the terms of the London treaty must be respected. We believe that the sublime porte will be glad to yield to the powers and thus "save its face" in Europe. The struggle in southeastern Europe, beginning with the attack upon Turkey by the allies and ending with the attack upon Bulgaria by Servia and Greece, caused 358,000 lives to be sacrificed, not counting the massacres. The expenditure for war ammunition alone is given as $1,250,000,000. Bulgaria lost 80,000 soldiers; Servia, 13,000; Greece, 10,000; Montenegro, 8,000, and Turkey, 100,000. In the first war Turkey was forced to spend $400,000,000; Bulgaria, $300,000,000; Servia, $160,000,000; Greece, $70,000,000, and Montenegro, $400,000. The second war, though much shorter, was much more disastrous. Bulgaria lost 60,000 dead; Servia, 40,000, and Greece 30,000. This war cost Bulgaria an additional $150,000,000; Servia, $100,000,000, and Greece, $50,000,000.
The Church of the Past and the Future
By Editor
Speaking of the efforts of some religious reformers to revolutionize the faith of the Christian church, L. M. B. Anderson, in the Pacific Christian Advocate of June 25, 1913, says:—
The church "with no devil but a man's inhumanity to man and no hell but a man's own conscience" may be a modern church, but it has not the remotest connection with the church Jesus Christ came to perpetuate, and has nothing in common with the great commission to go "into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." . . . A church "that believes enough in God to believe that he will save to the uttermost, and believes enough in man to believe he will want to be saved to the uttermost," may be the church of the future, but it is not the church of the historical past. The history of mankind since written history came to be, does not furnish a single example of a people wanting to be saved even a little bit, to say nothing of "to the uttermost." If the Jews wanted to be saved, they were in poor business crucifying Jesus; and the world has been in the same business ever since. When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, his wail was, "Ye would not."
The writer believes that the church of the future will continue to teach that "there is none other name . . . whereby we must be saved," and that Jesus Christ has "power on earth to forgive sins," and that his blood can "cleanse us" from inborn sin, and give us the witness of the Holy Spirit that we have passed from death unto life. It will continue to "believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord."
While we fear that this will not be true of Christianity as a whole, which even now is honey-combed with specious error and infidelity, we believe it will be true of those who come off conquerors in the conflict with sin. In fact, it is only by such a faith as this that the remnant saved by grace will be enabled to come off victorious.
An Editor With a Conscience
By Editor
EDITORS are not always credited with possessing this element in their constitutional make-up, and particularly some editors of yellow journalism. It is believed, and perhaps justly, that many popular journals cater to a depraved public taste in order to secure popularity and increase the subscription list of their papers. Too often we see advertising of such a character as to indicate all too plainly where the editors, or at least the publishers, of the papers stand with respect to some of the great questions of moral reform, like temperance, social purity, etc., which are being prominently urged upon the people at the present time. The comic picture section is one means by which good taste and high standards of literary excellence are sacrificed to cater to the depraved taste of popular demand.
It is refreshing, however, occasionally to see a great newspaper which has some conscience in these matters and is determined from the standpoint of right to eliminate some of these objectionable features. This the Public Ledger of Philadelphia proposes to do. Regarding its future policy with respect to the comic pages the editor says:—
The use of the color comic pages in the Sunday Public Ledger has been discontinued. It was concluded that the subject-matter and treatment of the comic illustrated serials exercise a mischievous influence on boys and girls and have demoralizing tendencies. This step was taken in full realization of the fact that these supplements are supposed to have large circulation value. The Public Ledger believes, however, that the substitution of other features of superior quality will have more worthy appeal to the intelligence and good taste of the great mass of its readers. It is the province of a newspaper to undertake to inculcate in its readers appreciation of what is elevating and artistic, rather than merely to seek popularity, and not to encourage the circulation of pictorial or other matter the popularity of which is due more to the obviousness of its appeal than to any inherent merit of its own. The Public Ledger is replacing the comic with other features that will have equal interest as well as superior value. It intends to eliminate journalistic "vaudeville," and substitute therefor something more in keeping with the higher purpose of an enlightened newspaper.
If this good example set by the Public Ledger were followed by the other great newspapers of the land, it would do much toward the education of the youth and children in other ways than in paths of crime. That the influence of these pictures is greatly for the making of evil, evidence is not lacking.
Parental Training
By Editor
IN an address given by Miss Mary Bartelme, a judge of the girls' department of the juvenile court of Cook County, Illinois, the following good counsel is offered to parents:—
I feel very much discouraged when parents come to me and seem so very helpless in regard to knowing where their children spend their evenings and nights. Children and young people go without parental restraint to picture shows and dances, and it never seems to occur to the parents to know what their children are doing until it is too late — when they have to tell their story in the juvenile court. How are you going to protect our girls? Educate your11boys! Parents, have some backbone and see that your children do what they ought to do instead of simply doing as they please. It makes one feel desperate in cases where boys and girls have had a chance. Parents permit their children to do things of which they themselves do not approve. Parents have too much of the passive attitude and no backbone. Just that lack of parental oversight has made boys and girls what they are. This makes for weak children morally. Parents should be strong leaders instead of weak followers. You must do as you ought, not simply as you want to do, or drift. Let parents and children spend their evenings together at such places as the parents approve.
The Conscience Fund
THE "conscience fund" was established by President Madison in 1811 when one who had defrauded the government out of five dollars returned it to the treasury. Up to June 30 this year the government has received on this fund $434,615.69. The largest amount ever received in one year was in 1902 when $35,868 was paid into the fund. The greatest individual contribution was made to the collector of customs in New York City more than a decade ago by some unknown person who had defrauded the government of tariff duties amounting to $18,669.69. Many consciences have been eased no doubt by returning to the treasury of Uncle Sam the amounts unjustly taken.
Many persons have reasoned that it was perfectly right at any time to defraud a railway company, or steal a ride on the street-car, or lie about the age of a child to avoid payment for a ticket. These things, however, are indicative of the real character. Those who are truly honest will not do these things. True honesty will find exercise in every business transaction of life. If all who have robbed different corporations and their fellow men generally should pay their just dues, there would be a great conscience fund running up into the millions.
No books of account in this world have a record of these dishonest transactions, but they are seen by the great Judge of all, and a record is kept in the books of heaven. If that record is not purged by a confession of the wrong and by restitution of stolen goods in this life, the account must be settled at last before the great Judge. Let us make right today every wrong, and stand before God and our fellows with a conscience void of offense.