"A GREAT revival of interest in the great question of Sunday rest is sweeping over" England and France and other European nations, according to Rev. Dr. S. S. Waltz, pastor of the First English Lutheran Church of Louisville, Ky., who spent nearly three months traveling in Europe the past summer. "People everywhere, irrespective of creed or nationality," he declares, "are waking up to the fact that this law of God and man is inherently righteous and necessary for man's well-being and for the good of society. . . . The working people are clamoring for it; business people of all classes are yielding to it."
On September 16, the first Sunday following his return, Dr. Waltz preached to a large congregation of his church people and friends "on the increasing power of Christ in the world," declaring that he returned "from foreign travel more hopeful of the triumph of Christ's Gospel, not only in my own, but in other lands, than ever before;" that "with all the world's wickedness, the tide of righteousness is rising everywhere;" that "more and more men and nations are coming to fear and honor God;" and that "more and more is Christ and His Gospel coming to be the governing power in the life and legislation of the lands which are destined to wield the world's power;" and that "one can not travel through this and foreign lands with his eyes and his heart open but he will return more sanguine as a Christian patriot." Then, in illustration and confirmation of these declarations, he proceeded as follows, as reported the next day in the Louisville Herald, under the heading, "Sunday Closing Sweeps over All Europe:"
"One incident that impressed me profoundly in three months of travel was the growing respect for that law which Almighty God enacted for the protection of His people, and which all civilized nations have put into their statutes, guaranteeing to all people one day in seven for rest. I left my own city and land deeply interested in this subject. I was greeted on the other side by a great revival of interest on the same subject. People everywhere, irrespective of creed or nationality, are waking up to the fact that this law of God and man is inherently righteous and necessary for man's well-being and for the good of society. It is not a question of religion or of church merely that there be one day in the week for rest. It is demanded by the physical nature of man, by the welfare of society, and the well-being of the home. As citizens, as patriots, and as those who desire the good of the great world of busy working people, we can not do otherwise than plead for the protection of our sabbath day of rest. It is not for us to dictate what they shall do with it so long as they do not interfere with the rest and quiet of other people. It is for us to demand that the law of God and nations guaranteeing this sacred boon to every one be not trampled in the dust. The interests that hang on it are too momentous to be lightly regarded.
"In England and France recent legislation by their parliaments have made it more obligatory than ever before that all business be so conducted that one day in seven be given all connected with it as a day of rest. The working people are clamoring for it. Business people of all classes are yielding to it, and a wave of interest on this great question of Sunday rest is sweeping over those great nations. As an indication of how business people are accepting the law in France, this incident will suffice: Less than a month ago every package that went out from a large grocery house, which has a chain of stores throughout France, bore this notice: 'Since Parliament has enacted a law making it obligatory that all people be given one day in seven for rest, all our stores will be closed on Sunday after the first day of September.' When France, not over sensitive on such questions, takes such firm and righteous grounds for the protection of the great throng of working people, it tells how the tide of public sentiment is rising higher and sweeping on to better things."
But the law of France will not satisfy our Sunday-law advocates. That demands one day's rest in seven, without specifying the day; the Sunday-law advocates demand that the law shall safeguard the religious Sunday.
The only divine law of weekly rest regards one certain day, the seventh. The Sunday-law movement is not a Gospel movement; it is in the interest of a union of religion with the state.
A HINDRANCE TO CHRISTIANITY.
It is a well-known fact that the natural rights of the people are more narrowly circumscribed, more perniciously infringed, by religious legislation than by legislation of any other character; therefore, liberty of conscience, and legitimate liberty of action are thereby jeopardized to a greater extent than by any other species of legislation. And the freer the people are in matters of conscience, the more charitable they are toward each other, and therefore more susceptible to the appeals of the Gospel. There is no greater hindrance to the cause of true Christianity than attempts to enforce religious tenets by civil law. All church history attests this point.
The Monroe Doctrine.
By Editor
It had been thought by some that the administration was inclined to repudiate the Monroe doctrine, by what was said by a friend of the President in Germany; but what Secretary of State Root said (quoted below) at the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, November 19, leaves no doubt as to the attitude of the present administration.
"The principle declared by Monroe is as wise an expression of sound political judgment to-day, as truthful a representation of the sentiments and instincts of the American people to-day, as living in its force as an effective rule of conduct whenever occasion shall arise, as it was on the 2d of December, 1823."
Illogical Geology
ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.—Of this little book, by George McCready Price, the well-known English author, Rev. S. Baring-Gould writes: “I have been intensely interested in your ‘Illogical Geology,’ and I think you prove your points conclusively.” Prof. George Howard Parker, of Harvard University, says: “I think you have brought out with great clearness the difficulties of supporting the evolution theory from the geological side. In my opinion there would have been no evolution theory, had science had only what geology up to the present has unearthed for us.” And the noted archeologist, A. H. Sayce, of Queen’s College, Oxford, England, writes on one of the facts used with telling effect by Mr. Price: “Sir H. Howorth’s arguments from the presence of herds of mammoths, etc., in places where they must have been overwhelmed by a sudden catastrophe, have always seemed to me very strong; and have never yet been answered by ‘orthodox’ geology. And the assumption that similar fossiliferous strata are of the same age in all parts of the earth is, of course, ‘unproven.’”
The price of the book, paper covered, is only twenty-five cents. It may be obtained of the Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal.
Our New Dress
By Editor
WE ARE NOT YET wholly into our new dress. Next week we will look better.
A More Readable Type
By Editor
HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS PAGE? — We mean this style of type. It is a light bold face, and wonderfully easy to read, isn't it, for both old and young eyes? Nearly all our small type in the year to come will be set in this bold, plain, easily read type.
Articles on the Mormon Question
By Editor
A SERIES OF ARTICLES touching the very core of the Mormon question will appear in the SIGNS, beginning, perhaps, next week. The general subject will be "The Authority of the Previously Written Word." Other articles and Bible-readings on other phases of the ism will be published. Let them be circulated wherever Mormons are found.
No! A Thousand Times No!
By Editor
NO! A THOUSAND TIMES NO!!—In an article in our Outlook Department on "The Sunday Movement in England," the chief rabbi of London is quoted as saying that he would "naturally have wished to see the seventh rather than the first day of the week recognized." We are sorry for this. God's Sabbath needs no recognition by human statute law. Such recognition would add naught to its strength, dignity, or worth. If it has not within it the divine principle to maintain it among His children, and to arise from error's crushing weight of the centuries, let it die.
A TIME TO PROTEST.
By Editor
Now is a time when the friends of religious liberty ought to be writing their representatives in both National and State Legislatures in earnest protest against all Church-and-State union, and all legislation tending toward such a consummation. Read the little journal "Liberty," published in Washington, D. C., Takoma Park Station, it is only twenty-five cents a year. Read the SIGNS OF THE TIMES upon this great question, and then you will get the Bible setting. The question means much to you as well as to every soul. Tho we may try to avoid responsibility in its decision, we shall be affected by its result.
The Growing Demand for Sunday Laws
By Editor
NOTE OUR OUTLOOK department this week, and mark the growing demand for Sunday laws. There is no reason in the world why there should be a Sunday law. Sunday is not kept any holier because of it. There are many cogent reasons why there should not be. Faithfulness and devotion in religious observance does not depend on civil law; it is ever proportional to general spirituality and religious tone. The Sunday laws of Constantine's time paved the way for the Dark Ages. The Sunday-law revival of these days is history repeating itself. It will not be long ere it blossoms out world-wide; and then we shall see the world-wide demand for the worship of the beast and his image, and the reception of his mark. Rev. 13: 1-17.
Better Than All
BETTER THAN ALL.—Sometimes a pope, sometimes a committee, sometimes a council, lords it over God's heritage. Better the few than the one; better the many than the few, because in the greater number is less of lording. Better than all, however, is the leading of the Lord Jesus.
Not Mrs. Eddy
By Editor
NOT MRS. EDDY.—Mr. Frank W. Gale, publicity agent of California for Christian Science, writes us that the portrait published by "McClure's," alleged to be that of Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, is not that of Mrs. Eddy at all, but is from a photograph of Mrs. Sarah C. Chevallier, formerly of Boston, but who died in California two years ago. Affidavits are presented to prove this, one of which is from the son of Mrs. Chevallier. The mere portrait is not of great importance, but it throws discredit on "McClure's" "Truth about Mrs. Eddy." "Christian Science" is not to be judged by such things; but by the Bible, the book of Christianity.
CHURCH AND STATE TROUBLES.
By Editor
We wish all Catholics, and Protestants too, for the matter of that, looked upon the Church and State question as does the Rev. D. S. Phelan, editor of the Catholic "Western Watchman." He says, issue of Nov. 15, 1906:
"The church of God needs no charter from the State. She owes nothing to the State, except gratitude for services with which she can very well dispense. The church will live in spite of the State, although her condition may be one of violence. She may be wounded, but she can not die. When the State plants itself across the path of her progress she must fight the State. This is not called war; the discriminating verdict of history styles it persecution. our Lord has foretold that His church would be persecuted, and He did not place a time limit or fix a degree of virulence to the work of the persecutor. She would be persecuted for His name's sake, and for the same reason that He was persecuted. The church and the State are as irreconcilable enemies as the world and Christ; as the spirit and the flesh. There never can be lasting peace between them."
There is one thing in the above worthy of further note, and that is the matter of "peace between them." Peace never ought to be sought, no one on either side ought to seek to reconcile differences. But let EACH ONE ATTEND TO ITS OWN BUSINESS IN ITS PROPER SPHERE, AND THERE NEVER WILL BE WAR. The trouble all comes, and nearly always on the part of religionists, when one seeks to intermeddle with the other. Oil and water do not mix and normally will not mix, neither do they quarrel. The persecution which the Catholic Church may be suffering in France she has herself invited in her relations with the State.
HOW CAN IT BE DONE?
By Editor
In our Outlook Department will be found an article on Sunday closing in England. Rev. F. B. Meyer suggests the term "Rest-day," instead of "Sabbath," "Lord's Day," or "Sunday," so as to lay "less stress on the religious, than on the ethical, physical, and moral aspect of the question." Our correspondent suggests that it is not by doing this "that the difficulty can be removed, but by ceasing to have any religious aspect to the question." But this is as impossible as to separate heat from fire and cold from snow. The Sabbath or the Sunday question is religious, call it by what name we will, or legislate how we will. If separated from religion, there will be no demand for such a law.
Sanford’s Society of Shiloh
SANFORD'S SOCIETY OF SHILOH, ME., blasphemously called The Holy Ghost and Us Society, has recently been investigated by the governor of the state, and found to be in a deplorable condition. Children were found to be cruelly treated, adults half starved and improperly clothed, and disease, depravity, and insanity were disclosed as the result of this pseudo Elijah's "will." Sanford, who, like Dowie, claims to be Elijah, is in the Holy Land, endeavoring to establish himself there. The present condition of things at Shiloh ought to convince the dullest of his dupes that they have been deluded by a self-deceived man. Both of the self-styled "Elijahs" seem to be passing to oblivion at the same time. It will be fortunate if some of their deluded followers do not further deceive the broken and confused followers. It is never safe to follow any man who exalts himself.
Massachusetts Sunday Law Debate
By Editor
MASSACHUSETTS is not yet settled. The legislative committee has had hearings demanded by the Jews, who want the privilege of working quietly on Sunday, from steamship owners, asking to be permitted to load and unload vessels on that day, from ex-Gov. John D. Long, to allow Sunday amusements at Provincetown, because of the visits of U. S. warships, while many others protested against any relaxation of the law. One of the clergy complained that too many washings were seen on that day. Really, it would be a blessing if many more washings, moral and physical were seen on that day. Idleness is even a greater curse than labor. Why can not Massachusetts clergymen leave God to do some things? Do they feel that He would not make a Sunday law?
DISCOVERIES ARCHEOLOGICAL.
Dr. von Lecoq, who has traveled in the most remote parts of Central Asia on a scientific mission with which he was charged by the Prussian government, has made important archeological discoveries, among which is a number of manuscripts in ten different languages, one in a wholly unknown tongue. This is said to be the greatest archeological find since the days of Sir Henry Rawlinson and Sir Austen Layard.
Two Great Feats
TWO GREAT FEATS.—While Commander Peary has gone furthest north, nearest the North Pole, according to all records, Dr. Frederick A. Cook "has carried the national standard highest above the cloud-line to a peak (Mt. McKinley) that has hitherto defied all efforts of mountain climbing."