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Review and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 34.

JERICHO

Review and Herald

Aug 24, 1905

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Aug 24, 1905

JERICHO

But little more than the site of this historic city remains to gratify the curiosity of the traveler, though for a long period of time Jericho was a leading city in Palestine, second only to Jerusalem. It was a city of Benjamin, situated about twenty miles northeast of Jerusalem, and about six miles from the Jordan. An extensive plain surrounded it, known as the plain of Jericho, the soil of which was very fertile.
Jericho was a prominent city at the time of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. To this place came the spies sent out by “the harlot Rahab.” When, forty years later, the armies of Israel crossed the Jordan, Jericho was the first city taken by them, after that most remarkable of sieges terminating in the overthrowing of its walls “by faith.” God had appointed the city to utter destruction, and when this judgment had overtaken it at the hands of Joshua, God pronounced a curse upon any one who should rebuild it. Joshua 6:26. The word spoken against it was both a curse and a prophecy, which was fulfilled in the days of King Ahab, when Jericho was rebuilt by “Hiel, the Bethelite,” who “laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub.” At Jericho occurred the meeting of Jesus and the rich publican, Zaccheus, who became Jesus’ disciple.
Between Jericho and Jerusalem the road runs through a series of rocky defiles, which make it a gloomy and dangerous pathway. The traveler here can well appreciate the force of the Saviour’s parable of the good Samaritan, who rescued the man who “went down from Jerusalem to Jericho,” and fell among thieves. This road is considered to be the most dangerous in Palestine.
Modern Jericho is described as “a poor, nasty village of the Arabs,” and as a collection of “about fifty houses in bad condition, wherein the laborers who cultivate the gardens shelter themselves.” Modern enterprise, moved by the prospect of financial gain, has put some few touches upon the ruins for the benefit of travelers, as indicated by the building at the left of the picture, bearing the sign, “Jordan Hotel.”

Publishers' Page

Conducted by the Department of Circulation of the Review and Herald Publishing Association

My Garden Neighbors

A NEW book is just being issued from the press of the Review and Herald Publishing Association, entitled “My Garden Neighbors.” It is written by Dr. L. A. Reed, and is a book of special interest to all who love nature. It tells of certain birds, animals, and other creatures which at one time or another made their abode in the author's garden. You will want to read of the sparrows who learned to imitate the bluebirds, of the cat that went wild and got too smart to live, of the little chipping sparrow that was miserably imposed upon by a great lazy cowbird, of the bug that was once a god in Egypt,—in short, you will want to read the whole book. It contains 256 pages, and over fifty illustrations, of which more than twelve are full-page, and four are colored plates, showing seven birds in their natural colors. The frontispiece is a picture of a bluebird, sitting on a spray of wild roses, all beautifully colored. The price of the book is one dollar.

Books for Our Little Folks

THE following is a very attractive series of illustrated books for our little folks: “Home, Haunts, and Habits of Wild Animals,” 75 cents; “Happy Days on the Farm,” 35 cents; “Wild Animals at Home,” 35 cents; “Wood’s Natural History,” 50 cents; “Making Home Happy,” 25 and 50 cents; “Best Stories from the Best Book,” 25, 50, and 75 cents; “Easy Steps in the Bible Story,” 25 and 50 cents; “The Gospel Primer,” 25 and 50 cents; “Our Little Folks’ Bible Nature,” 25 and 40 cents; “Uncle Ben’s Cobblestones,” 75 cents; “The House We Live In,” 75 cents; “How a Little Girl Went to Africa,” $1.

Our Little Folks’ Bible Nature

“OUR LITTLE FOLKS’ BIBLE NATURE” is a kindergarten book containing simple, graded lessons on Bible nature, beginning with light and continuing with the subject of creation in the order of the Scriptures. The author believes that the order in which Scriptural subjects are introduced to the young mind is of a divine origin; and the closer it is followed, the better it will be for the children. The book is of the sentence-method order, carefully graded. Each subject is thoroughly illustrated with new drawings made especially for the book, and with thirteen beautiful colored plates. It is especially adapted to church-school work. It is nevertheless an excellent book to sell to children outside of our schools. Being placed in the forty-per-cent list, it can be sold by all resident canvassers.
Prices: board, 25 cents; cloth, 40 cents, post-paid.
Any of the above books may be ordered from your tract society or from our nearest publishing house.

SOME BOOKS FOR HOME WORKERS

By the term “Home Workers” is meant those who can, while living at their own home—in city or country—devote some time to introducing some one of our publications to their friends and neighbors. These may not be able to leave home duties to engage continuously in selling the regular subscription books, but can spend a few hours each week in this work.
For this class the books in our Home Workers’ list is especially adapted.
These books are gotten up in attractive style, and are of sufficient variety to meet the requirements of all. It is not necessary to consult with a State canvassing agent in order to begin work on these books. The territory for them is at the disposal of our churches. Select your book, arrange with the church librarian where to begin, and go to work.
Notice this list of books that instruct in practical Christian life, and lead to the study of the Bible.

Biblical and Devotional

Desire of Ages.—This is the plain edition of that wonderful book. It has no illustrations, but contains all the subject of the large book. Cloth, $1.50. Library, $2.50. Russia limp, $2.
Thoughts on Daniel and Thoughts on Revelation.—Each book bound separately in paper. What better work can be done than to place these books in the hands of the people, leading them to a study of these important prophecies? Pamphlet style only. Daniel, 25 cents. Revelation, 25 cents.
Great Nations of To-day.—A study of the history of nations and conclusive evidence that some of the nations of our own time, and especially the United States, are subjects of Bible prophecy. Paper, 25 cents.
His Glorious Appearing.—An exposition of the wonderful prophecy of the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. Thousands have read it, and thousands more will be glad of a privilege to do so. Board, 25 cents. Cloth, 40 cents.
Steps to Christ.—A book that has helped and encouraged many a downcast soul. Your neighbor ought to have its message of help and cheer. Paper, 25 cents. Cloth, 50 cents.
Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing.—Another devotional book of rare merit and great helpfulness. A good companion volume to “Steps to Christ.” Cloth, 60 cents.
Education.—A complete and thorough treatise on education, showing that a true, broad education can be secured only from the standpoint of the Christian. Cloth, $1.25.
Helps to Bible Study.—A series of forty Bible readings covering the principal points of faith and adapted to personal study. Paper, 25 cents. Cloth, 50 cents.
The housewife needs some new recipes—different from any she has had. These will be found in the Vegetarian Cook Book. It will be a revelation to some women—and to their families as well—to find what appetizing, nourishing dishes can be prepared without meats and grease. Cloth, 75 cents.
The above books selected from the Home Workers’ list are all subject to a discount of forty per cent to actual workers when ordered through the librarian of the church. No discount allowed to individuals for books for their own use.

Who Else Will Enlist?

HUNDREDS of our people who thought they could not do this kind of work have found to their pleasure and surprise that they can, and they have been wonderfully blessed in the doing. The same blessing awaits hundreds of others who are not engaged in this important kind of missionary work. Who will enlist?
Talk it over with your church elder and librarian, and begin at once. Supplies should be ordered through your conference tract society, or the publishing house nearest you.
Review & Herald Publishing Assn., Battle Creek, Mich.        Washington, D. C.
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.,     Mountain View, Cal.
SOUTHERN PUBLISHING ASSN.,     Nashville, Tenn.

Editorial

By Editor

Paganizing Influences

In an official pronouncement recently issued, Bishop P. A. Ludden, of Syracuse, N. Y., gave orders that Roman Catholics within his diocese who should die by accident on Sunday at any public amusement resort without having attended mass in the morning should be deprived of such honors as the church is accustomed to bestow upon communicants in connection with the burial service. This order was given, it is said, on account of the growing desecration of Sunday, and the tendency of Roman Catholics to absent themselves from the service of the church before going to places of amusement. And now former Ambassador Andrew D. White writes a letter to Bishop Ludden, thanking him “most sincerely and heartily” for the stand which he has taken “in regard to Sunday desecration,” and stating that he has “watched with ever-increasing regret the tendencies in our large cities, and, indeed, to some extent, in the country districts, toward a complete paganizing of American life as regards the first day of the week.” This statement leads us to call attention to some simple facts, and to make an inquiry. Sunday is a purely pagan institution, “the wild solar holiday of all pagan times;” it was introduced into the church under paganizing influences, and without divine authority; Cardinal Gibbons himself declares (“Faith of Our Fathers,” page III) that “you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday.” We are therefore led to inquire whether the effort to enforce a stricter observance of Sunday is not in truth the influence toward “a complete paganizing of American life as regards the first day of the week.” Popery has been well defined as “an after-growth of paganism,” and the Sunday institution is one of the proofs of this fact. To enforce Sunday observance upon Americans is to compel conformity to a pagan custom. Is not this a paganizing of American life? Would it not be better to influence our American life in favor of Christianity rather than in favor of paganism? Which will the professed Christian church do?

“Sabbath” and “Sunday”

By Editor

It requires considerable intellectual keenness and some facility in juggling with language to admit that “there is no command to keep Sunday holy,” and yet to try to prove that the first day of the week is the Sabbath, and that the fourth commandment applies with full force to the keeping of that day. To such extremities are those reduced who feel the need of the fourth commandment in order to enforce the observance of a sabbath, and yet are unwilling to observe the Sabbath of the commandment.
A fresh illustration of this attempt to retain the commandment in full force, but to dispense with the day mentioned in the commandment, is found in a recent issue of the Christian Statesman. Under the title “The Name of the Rest Day” we find a letter to the editor of the Statesman, which is followed by “Editorial Remarks” upon the views advanced by the correspondent. From this letter we take the following paragraphs:—
In a recent issue of the Sunday School Times the statement is made by an eminent scholar and professor in a theological seminary that “the seventh day of the week is always meant when ‘Sabbath day’ occurs in the Bible. The fact that many apply it [Sabbath day] to Sunday sometimes creates confusion.”
The “confusion” arises not from calling “Sunday” the “Sabbath” day, but from calling the “Sabbath” “Sunday.” The “confusion” is most unfortunate and harmful, especially when it leads people to the notion that the Sabbath passed away with Bible times, and that we now have a substitute for it so different that to use the names interchangeably creates “confusion.”
To keep up or emphasize such distinction tends to, and in point of fact does, dissipate the force of the fourth commandment. There is no command to keep Sunday holy. As a most regrettable consequence the average Christian does not really believe that we now have, or are required to have, the Sabbath day of the Bible.
After confounding the weekly Sabbath with the ceremonial sabbaths, the correspondent further says:—
It is clear that while the “Sabbath day” of old Testament times commonly fell on the seventh day of the week, it is probable that it was movable. It was not requisite that six secular days should always intervene between Sabbaths. It would appear that when a fixed feast-day sabbath fell upon any intervening day of the cycle of seven, a new starting-point for the weekly cycle was recognized. It is most clear from the above and other passages that either there were two kinds of sabbath days, the one the seventh-day Sabbaths, and the other special ones, or else the Sabbath was movable to accommodate the feast calendar. We believe that, in the total absence of any necessity for two kinds and in the absence of any Scriptural reference to two kinds, there was but one, and that the fourth commandment specified the manner of its observance.
After another effort to show that there was only one kind of sabbaths the writer continues:—
We have no specific Bible record of when, how, or why the seventh-day Sabbath was discarded for the first-day sabbath, but what more natural than for the early Christians to begin reckoning their week from what was at once a Jewish sabbath and also the day on which Christ arose from the dead, or the day of Pentecost, on which the full harvest of the Holy Spirit was poured out? The Christian world has simply perpetuated what the apostles did in recognizing the first day of the week as the Christian sabbath. The fourth commandment applied to it under the Old Testament dispensation and follows it into the New. There is, therefore, no difference between our “Sunday” and “sabbath,” except that the former name originates from the sun-worship of the heathen, while the latter name was given to it of God. There is no necessity for “confusion” here if Christians felt as they should toward the blessed rest day, and were willing to show their respect for it by always giving to it that most beautiful and significant name its Author gave it—the Sabbath.
In the editorial remarks following this letter we find the following paragraph:—
The argument presented by our correspondent concerning the manner in which time was counted among the Hebrews, and by which it is shown that the Sabbath could not fall regularly on the seventh day of the week, is new to many people. It merits careful study. The writer has examined the evidence with considerable care, and is convinced that our correspondent is substantially correct.
It seems remarkable that men who are capable of understanding language would make such assertions as these in the face of the plain statements of the fourth commandment and the unimpeachable facts of Biblical history, to say nothing of the records of secular history. The commandment says that ‘the seventh day is the Sabbath,’ and commands that no work shall be done on that day, giving as a reason for this statement and command concerning that day that “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, . . . and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Thus the Sabbath is based upon what the Lord himself did. And what the Lord did in making the Sabbath he has never done with reference to any other day than the seventh. And it is impossible to apply the foundation of the seventh-day Sabbath to a movable sabbath. After six days of creative work he rested on the seventh day. He worked on definite days, and he rested on a definite day. He then blessed the definite day upon which he had rested. These acts established the weekly Sabbath, and the division of time into weeks. This division of time has been uniform and universal among the nations of the world. We will quote some good testimony upon this point:—
The origin of this division of time is a matter which has given birth to much speculation. Its antiquity is so great, its observance so wide-spread, and it occupies so important a place in sacred things, that it has been very generally thrown back as far as the creation of man, who on this supposition was told from the very first to divide his time on the model of the Creator’s order of working and resting. The week and the Sabbath are, if this be so, as old as man himself.—Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, Article “Week.”
Thus from the very beginning of the history of this world the week has been recognized by all civilized nations as one of the fundamental divisions of time, and the week of the Israelites has always coincided with the week of other nations. This could not possibly be true if, as this writer claims, ‘when a fixed feast-day sabbath fell upon any intervening day of the cycle of seven, a new starting-point for the weekly cycle was recognized.’
Furthermore, according to the universal use of the word, crystallized into a dictionary definition, the word ‘week’ signifies ‘a period of seven days.’ Any given length of time is thus indicated by a certain number of weeks. But this would be an uncertain and unreliable method of reckoning time, if a new starting-point was likely to be taken for the week ‘when a fixed feast-day sabbath fell upon any intervening day of the cycle of seven.’ This shifting week would make confusion worse confounded. But history declares that there has been no such confusion among the nations in their reckoning of time, and it is plain enough that there never could have been ‘a new starting-point for the weekly cycle.’
Again, the clearest distinction is made in the Scriptures between the weekly Sabbath and other appointed sabbaths. In the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus mention is made of the different feasts and sabbaths commanded by the Lord. We quote a portion of this instruction:—
In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. . . . Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: . . . it shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls. . . . These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day: beside the sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your free-will offerings, which ye give unto the Lord.
The obvious meaning of this language is that in addition to the usual gifts and free-will offerings there were certain other offerings prescribed, and that in addition to the usual weekly Sabbaths, designated as “the Sabbaths of the Lord,” in harmony with the language of the fourth commandment, there were other special sabbaths prescribed. As to the necessity of these additional sabbaths we must leave their Author to be the best judge, but the correspondent of the Statesman denies both their necessity and their existence in these words: ‘We believe that, in the total absence of any necessity for two kinds and in the absence of any Scriptural reference to two kinds, there was but one.’ We leave our readers to decide whether such a conclusion is justifiable in the light of the instruction quoted above.
Failing to recognize the two kinds of sabbaths, this correspondent says that ‘while the ‘Sabbath day’ of Old Testament times commonly fell on the seventh day of the week, it is probable that it was movable.’ When we remember that ‘among the Jews the days of the week had no names, they were simply counted,’ and that therefore the expression ‘the seventh day’ was just as definite a designation of a particular day as is our present word “Saturday,” we are prepared to appreciate the absurdity of the claim that the Sabbath was a movable day in the face of the statement in the commandment that ‘the seventh day is the Sabbath.’
Suppose the correspondent of the Statesman could find in the New Testament this statement: ‘Sunday is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,’ does any one think that he would now be found arguing for a movable Sabbath? But when the commandment said, ‘The seventh day is the Sabbath,’ it established an immovable Sabbath just as positively as if it had used our present name for the day instead of the number of the day. A movable Sabbath! Men commanded to observe an indefinite day! Not even necessary that ‘six secular days should always intervene between Sabbaths’! What a hodge-podge this would make of a plain commandment! This is the foolishness of human wisdom well displayed in the effort to make void the commandment of God.
It is perfectly true, as this correspondent says, that ‘we have no specific Bible record of when, how, or why the seventh-day Sabbath was discarded for the first-day sabbath,’ and the reason for this omission is found in the fact that this change was not made by divine sanction. We do have, however, a plain intimation in the prophecies that an attempt would be made to change the law of God, and we find that just such an attempt has been made by the papacy, that power of which it was said that ‘he shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law.’ Any unprejudiced reading of history, either sacred or secular, will establish clearly the fact that the apostles did not recognize ‘the first day of the week as the Christian sabbath.’ On the contrary, the record plainly shows that they observed the seventh-day Sabbath according to the commandment, and that they raised up churches who kept the Sabbath of the commandment in harmony with the example and teaching of the apostles. Those who assert to the contrary can not produce the evidence to substantiate their assertions. They assume their conclusion as true, and then bring forward a mere semblance of proof which has been discredited over and over again. The most charitable view of their unwarranted course in this matter is that zeal in what they think to be a good cause has prevented them from conducting an impartial investigation, and from giving the proper interpretation to the statements of the Scripture.
The conclusion reached by the correspondent of the Statesman at the close of his series of unfounded assertions is worthy of note. He says:—
There is, therefore, no difference between our “Sunday” and “Sabbath,” except that the former name originates from the sun-worship of the heathen, while the latter name was given it of God.
How is it possible for any one who claims to deal in facts to assert that God ever gave the name “Sabbath” to the first day of the week? From Sinai he proclaimed, “The seventh day is the Sabbath,” and he has never revoked or changed this proclamation. Sunday is “the wild solar holiday of all pagan times,” and was adopted by an apostate church in those days when many pagan practises were introduced in order to make it easy to convert (?) the heathen to Christianity. It seems little less than blasphemy to declare that the fourth commandment applies to this day, and that God himself has given to it the name “Sabbath.” Sunday is a counterfeit sabbath, and is the sign of apostasy from God. Men have called this day “the Lord’s day” and “the Christian sabbath,” but God has never authorized any such use of these names. There is only one “blessed rest day,” and that is the day which God has blessed, the seventh day of the week.
It seems a hopeless and thankless task to follow the groundless claims and the baseless assertions of such a writer as this correspondent of the Statesman, and yet this is just the kind of instruction which the advocates of Sunday observance are seriously giving in their effort to counteract the effect of the message of Sabbath reform which is calling the people back to the true Sabbath of the Lord. Newly invented arguments are being put forward to break the force of the plain preaching of the truth, and now it is claimed that the fourth commandment applies with full force to Sunday, and that God has called that day the Sabbath. We can only hope that there are yet many who will not refuse a plain “Thus saith the Lord” in favor of human authority, and that the presumptuous claims of the Sunday advocates will turn honest souls to the observance of the true Sabbath.

A Rule of Charity

By L. A. S.

THERE is a rule of Christianity which says, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” The mere appearance of evil is not evil in itself, as between the individual and God; but it gives occasion for impressions to be received and reports started which may work serious injury to the cause of righteousness. The Christian will be careful to pursue a course which will jealously guard the interests of this cause. There are some individuals, however, who, while they carefully remember this injunction of the Scripture, seem entirely to forget that there is another rule equally important which says, “Charity . . . thinketh no evil.” They are ready to seize upon any appearance of evil in others and make it a subject of comment and of gossip, severely criticizing them for permitting such appearances, pursuing a course equally or even more reprehensible themselves, and with a zeal which indicates a decided relish for the task. It seems never to occur to such that in judging others they are condemning themselves.
It is to place Christianity in a proper light before the world, that Christians are required to avoid even the appearance of evil. While such appearances are better avoided at all times, it ought not to be necessary for an individual to go to extreme lengths of inconvenience to avoid any possible occasion for evil surmising on the part of those who profess to be governed by the principle of Christian charity. It ought not to be expected that those who make such a profession will vie with the world in the indulgence of this characteristic propensity of the carnal mind.
The appearance of evil would not so often be productive of evil if those who are so ready to condemn it as unchristian would be equally ready to practise the precept of Christianity, “charity . . . thinketh no evil.”
L. A. S.

A Burden for a Field

By W. A. S.

The Lord sometimes gives a worker special impressions concerning a particular field. The call comes to the heart with definite convictions as to the place of labor. We have seen this again and again in placing workers in the mission fields.
Yet it is doubtless the fact that this burden very often rests upon particular information and knowledge regarding the needs of the field. And in the common experience of our missionaries, I believe it may be said that most of those who are successfully working in the mission fields are there because the call for help from that particular place reached their ears; and the response was made just because there was a need to be supplied, and without waiting for any special impressions or feelings. A brother who recently accepted an appointment to a distant field, long left without a ministerial laborer, wrote thus of his experience:—
At first I felt decidedly averse to the proposition; but as I have studied the matter over, and seen in a measure the need, I have reached a more favorable conclusion. While I have long expected to sometime go to a foreign field, I have felt that the need and the fitness to fill the need constituted a call, rather than special impressions of the mind.
This is surely a reasonable view. We should go about this work for the world-wide field just as we go about the daily duties that come to our hand here. We look over the day’s task. We pray for wisdom to see what needs doing first. Then we go at it, doing with our might what our hands find to do.
Just so with our work for the world. The whole world must hear this message. Just now the Mission Board can not send the army of workers forth that ought to be going into waiting fields. But at least a few must be planting the leaven of truth amid the great mass, and getting ready to lead the strong advance that must come. Where the line is so feebly manned that one worker faces many millions, or where there are lands unentered, or where believers in pioneer fields are calling for some one to lead them, surely no one need consider personal feelings, or wait for special impressions. There is a need to be supplied. The first man to whom the call comes must decide whether he can reasonably answer or not.
God loves the world, the whole world, and with the love of God in our hearts we shall love to work anywhere in it. And we must labor to the plan that will most quickly carry this message through unentered fields. W. A. S.

The Sabbath-School Lessons

By G. B. Thompson

The importance of the Sabbath-school lessons can not be too highly estimated. With the exception of a few special lessons which some of our workers in foreign fields find it necessary to prepare, the lessons studied in the five divisions of the Sabbath-school are the same throughout the world, and are prepared under the supervision of the General Conference Sabbath-school Department. The field of study which is opened by these lessons is almost without limit, and their influence is far-reaching. No other line of Bible study which we have does more to mold the denomination than these lessons. Not only the older members come within the range of their influence, but the truths of the lessons reach the tender minds of the youth and the children. A moment’s reflection will be sufficient to enable all to see the importance of the lessons and something of the responsibility which is involved in arranging and preparing them for our schools.
But few comparatively have any correct idea of the amount of labor necessary in getting the lessons ready for each division. Deciding what shall be studied is often a matter of much perplexity, and it is difficult to make any arrangement which will suit everybody. Local needs and individual judgments differ; but those upon whom this great responsibility rests give the matter the most careful and prayerful consideration. It is a real satisfaction to know that as a rule there is but little complaint.
Obtaining competent writers of lessons for the various divisions is no small task. All Bible students are not lesson writers, and many who can do this work acceptably are loaded to the breaking point with other duties. The writing of our Sabbath-school lessons is a work of sufficient importance to be worthy of the best ability within the denomination. When the lessons are written, they are copied and sent to the various members of the department committee for suggestions and criticism; afterward they are prepared for publication. Altogether, much taxing mental work is necessary before the lessons are finally given to our people.
A few words concerning the general plan of the lessons, so far as arranged for in the future, will be of interest. The present plan provides a regular course of study for the children which will enable them to have quite a thorough knowledge of the Bible before beginning with the junior lessons. The course of lessons embraces a period of four years, and, as planned, is divided as follows:—
Old Testament History ........ 2 years Life of Christ and the Apostles ........ 1 year 6 months Topical Study on Points of Faith ........ 6 months
The lessons on Old Testament history and on the Life of Christ and the apostles will be arranged somewhat similarly to those we have had in the past. The topical studies will be prepared in story form for the primary and kindergarten grades, while the intermediate, doubtless, will have a few texts given for the lessons. By going over this course of lessons twice, the children will obtain quite a thorough knowledge of the general teaching of the Bible, and should then be ready for the junior lessons. It would seem that such a course, carefully followed out, would be attended with better results than to have the children drift around in a sort of “hit and miss” fashion, oftentimes studying subjects adapted to the work of more advanced classes. Doubtless all are aware that at the present time the lessons for these divisions are on the life of Christ. The study of the Acts of the Apostles and the topical subjects will follow.
In the senior and junior divisions, following the present lessons on “Tithes and Offerings,” one quarter will be devoted to the book of Esther. This book has never been studied in our Sabbath-schools, so far as the writer knows, and we believe it will prove of great interest and much profit to all. Following this we shall have one quarter’s lessons on the themes that seem to be specially adapted to the needs of our people at this time. Following this, six months will be devoted to a study of the sanctuary and the priesthood, based on the book of Hebrews.
We most earnestly ask our people everywhere to take hold of the work in the Sabbath-schools, and help to make this important branch of the message fill the place which the Lord desires that it should.
G. B. THOMPSON, Chairman S. S. Dept.

Note and Comment

A REMARKABLE case of resuscitation of a person in whose body life was extinct is described in a recent press telegram from Des Moines, Iowa. An Italian named Veil had been attacked by a negro armed with a razor, and so severely cut that at Mercy Hospital, to which institution he was taken, all the physicians present pronounced him dead. The body was placed on a slab preparatory to a post-mortem examination. The report says:—
Every one pronounced the man dead. Without discussing the matter with any one, Dr. Conkling thrust his hand into an unsewed wound in the chest cavity until he found the heart and pinched it. He then withdrew his hand, and stood silently watching the form before him. In two minutes color began coming into the pale face, and the veins and arteries to dilate with blood. In three minutes more the man was breathing normally. Two women nurses used to hospital scenes fainted at the astounding spectacle, while the other physicians gave Dr. Conkling their hearty congratulations. This afternoon Veil’s wounds were sewed, and there is every indication that the man will live.
From the standpoint of popular theology, an interesting and pertinent question would be, Was this man’s “immortal soul,” the conscious entity which is declared to survive the death of the body, recalled from the place to which it had gone when life became extinct, by this act of the physician which restored the beating of the heart? Will this Italian be able to tell of the experience of being conscious at the moment of death?
No one whose body has become reanimated after the functions upon which life depends had ceased, has ever spoken of being conscious in death. From the case of Lazarus and others raised from the dead by Christ and the apostles, down to the cases of this day where life has ceased under conditions which admit of a re-establishment of the life functions, as in a case of drowning, all are silent concerning any such experience. They only know that they passed into a state of total unconsciousness.
Why should people cling to the theory of an immortal soul dwelling in the human body, in the face of revelation, reason, and all the facts of human experience to the contrary?
Continue reading: L. A. S