Earlier text: THE CALL TO THE FEASTEXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE.
The following letter contains principles which are so true that although it was written from an entire miscomprehension of the case, I feel like giving it to our readers. But that the writer, and all who read, may understand, I will say that the catalogue referred to is an explanation of how to make healthful dress for women who will be fashionable or nothing, and whom we would like to keep alive, and as near sane as possible until they can have an opportunity to hear the truth and be saved. It is not supposed that Seventh-day Adventist women will put on all the trimmings indicated; but we do hope to induce fashionable women to lay off their corsets and heavy skirts, and adopt a dress, which, even if it is bedecked and be-trimmed, will be a starting point toward the kingdom. We must take people as they are, and try to make them what they ought to be. It is supposed that Seventh-day Adventist women will be able to make the dress without the trimmings. The same hygienic principles prevail whether the dress is trimmed or not. You can take the catalogue and show it to your sisters, and explain to them that this is made for the eye of the world, who would not look at it if it did not have about it something which the fashionable woman considers attractive. Any woman who knows the truth ought to be able to see below all the superficial show of such a diagram as is contained in this catalogue, and we have the promise that nothing shall offend those who have the peace of God in their hearts: “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Let us cultivate that peace, and instead of criticizing, stand by and pray for those who are trying to reach the souls that are at present entangled in the maze of this world's customs and pretenses.
S. M. I. H. I received the catalogue of fashion of how to make our dresses, and, oh, how my heart sank within me when I opened it and saw the figure plates; for it said to me as plain as could be, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” I could not show that catalogue to my sisters, for it would license them to think that they might spend their money for that which is not bread, and they do that enough now. Oh, how can we put so much trimming on our clothes when there is such a call for money to pay our workers, and when the Conference is so in debt, and when souls for whom Jesus died are perishing all around us, and we know that in foreign lands many souls will perish unless we do warn them. The Conference called for ten cents apiece a week from the members of our churches at the camp-meeting, but it seems that they have not responded very well. I believe that we as a people spend more than that amount in a year for things that are of no account to us who are looking for the soon-coming of our Saviour; and will not God require this at our hands?—Surely he will. We have been praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but how can he pour out his Spirit upon us when we are so fussed up with the fashions of the world. I know he can not do this, for he says so in his Word, and in the Testimonies. The cost of extra cloth, and other trimmings, would go a good ways to make up the ten cents a week for a year; that is, what we spend on one dress, the material ranging from fifty cents to one dollar a yard, which is all unnecessary, and only to gratify our pride. The Testimonies teach that we must overcome pride and every evil thing. We know that we must not please self, but God; not because we have to, but because we love him, and want to obey him. The lack of money to forward the message is on account of the unbelief on the part of God's people. It was unbelief that kept the children of Israel out of the promised land, and it will be unbelief that will keep us out of the kingdom. When the call to give ten cents a week was made, I raised my hand, but I did not know where it was coming from. I said in my heart, Lord, you give it to me; and praise his holy name, he has given it to me, and more. Perhaps it would not be out of place to tell something of my circumstances for the benefit of others. For almost two years three dollars a month is all I have had to depend upon in money. My health has been very poor for ten years. Six years of that time I was able to do scarcely anything, but the last two years I have kept house alone, and have raised a garden, which has supported me. I kept out one tenth for tithes, and one ninth for missionary money. The Lord has greatly blessed me, and now I am ahead with my ten cents a week, for which I praise his holy name. The house in which I live is my own, so I have no rent to pay. I rent the front part of it for a meeting-room, in which we hold our church services every Sabbath, and that is where the three dollars a month comes from. I have one son, and he gave me money enough to pay my taxes this year. I have sold from twenty-five to one hundred copies of the extra number of the Signs. I give to the Religious Liberty Association one dollar a year, and I also tithe the three dollars a month. I do not say this to boast of what I have done. God forbid. It is only to show what God will do for us if we let him. Now where does the fault lie? The Bible says, Like priest, like people. Oh, let us put off the works of darkness, and have faith in God. What shall we call our meetings? People ask me about it, and I do not know what name to give. I don't like to call them mothers' meetings. As to what you shall call your meetings, call them Women's Gospel Meetings. Invite both old and young, men and women, to attend the meetings, and make them as practical as possible. Take up subjects which are of everyday interest to the family,—fathers, mothers, and children together.
S. M. I. H. O God, who workest hitherto;
Working in all we see,
Fain would we be and bear and do
As best it pleaseth thee. The toil of brain or heart or hand
Is man's appointed lot;
He who God's call can understand
Will work, and murmur not. Our skill of hand and strength of limb
Are not our own, but thine;
We link them to the work of him
Who made all life divine. Our Brother-Friend, thy holy Son,
Shared all our lot and strife;
And nobly will our work be done
If molded by his life. Responsibility for Every Need
“THERE is no case of need for which some one is not responsible.” “SINCE I see so many requests for prayer for loved ones, and knowing that the prayers of the righteous avail much, I beg of you to remember a dear sister-in-law of mine, who has tuberculosis, that she may be restored, or if the loving Hand that formed her does not see fit to restore her to life and health, that she may be perfectly satisfied. She began some time ago to give herself to the Lord, but the suffering is so great at times that she seems almost to forget that Jesus is her Friend. She has requested that I ask the prayers of the sisters for her in her affliction.” “Dear sisters of the Woman’s Gospel Work, I ask your prayers for my husband, who has been sick for the last six months. His only trouble now seems to be with his mind. Pray for its restoration.” Pray for an unconverted husband for whom a sister has been praying and hoping for twelve years. She says: “I will not give him up. I must believe God when he says, ‘What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.’ I may not believe as I ought, but I will lay it anew before the Lord. Oh, I must be answered. I have waited so long—twelve years.” Reports for Isolated Sisters
By S. M. I. H.
Those of our sisters who are in comparatively comfortable circumstances, where they have the help of meetings and Christian fellowship, should write to those who are isolated, sending them reports of the services, and a synopsis of sermons or studies. This will be good both for those who receive the letters and for those who write them. Those who prepare these little reports and send them out will receive even more help than the others, upon the principle that it is more blessed to give than to receive; and the preparation will be a real education.
S. M. I. H. ARE WE DEGENERATING? IF SO, WHY?
By E. Stuver
E. Stuver, M. S., M. D., Ph. D. Journal of the American Medical Association, March 31, 1900. THIS is a question which is being seriously discussed by sages, philosophers, statesmen, physicians, and all persons interested in the welfare of the race; but to the physician, who is brought into such intimate contact with its causes and manifestations, and who by his training and opportunities is well prepared to throw a flood of light on it, to illumine its dark recesses and banish misconceptions, it should be a subject of absorbing interest. . . . There can be no doubt of the truth that the massing of enormous populations in large cities, with the impure air and bad sanitary surroundings, insufficient food, or excessive quantity, or improper kinds, of food, late hours and excesses of various kinds, together with the high-pressure of methods of living and the mad struggle for wealth, have done much to lower the health and vital resistance of a large part of our population. The crowded tenement houses and sweat shops, with all their physical evils and moral degradation, form a dark and corrupting current in the stream of our national life. And while it is true that some choice spirits in the great stream which is constantly pouring into the cities from the rural districts escape these contaminating influences, rise to high positions of honor and trust, and, by mingling with, infuse strength and vitality into, the decaying city populations, still the greater number are either engulfed or ruined by the putrid stream or are soiled by its foul contact. That this great change from rural to urban life has been followed by physical degeneracy in the population of to-day, as compared with our ancestors of fifty or one hundred years ago, no one will deny; and unless existing evils are speedily corrected, these physical defects and moral obliquities will become more pronounced with each succeeding generation as the population becomes more aggregated in the cities. Whether from an intellectual standpoint we are in advance of a few generations ago, is a very difficult matter to decide. There can be no question that the greater attention given to the study of the objects and phenomena of nature, which has led to so many discoveries and inventions, has greatly enlarged our mental horizon and given us a vastly more comprehensive view of the universe than was possessed by our ancestors. The facilities for travel and the ease of communication between the most distant parts of the civilized world have placed the mental products of the whole world within easy reach of every worker. This has unquestionably led to breadth and comprehensiveness of view, but at the same time, by presenting so many distractions to the mind, has caused a plethora, a satiety, in short a mental dyspepsia, which has led to the formations of many toxins, to defective assimilation and a very imperfect nutrition of the intellectual centers. While brightness, quickness, and the superficial, showy qualities of mind have been highly developed, power of concentration and profound thought has not been correspondingly increased. Indeed so intense is the competition and so strong the desire to attain an early fame or, more properly speaking, notoriety, that in order to secure this object almost any means is adopted in preference to long-continued investigation, hard work, and profound thinking. Nor is it difficult to point out at least some of the causes that have led to this state of affairs. Under the conditions which prevailed fifty years ago, most of the boys and girls of our country lived in the rural districts; they were brought into close contact with nature; they breathed its atmosphere, and were bathed in its influences. This communion with grand and beautiful objects—the majestic mountains, the vast and solitary forests breathing a language of their own, the expansive prairies, the mighty rivers and the rippling brooks—together with the exacting conditions on which success and even existence depended, infused health and vigor into their bodies, gave time for their minds to develop in accordance with the plan impressed by nature on the race throughout the ages, and inspired them with a strength and steadfastness of purpose which are sadly deficient at the present time. In those days boys and girls attended school, three, four, or five months in the year, and, even while in attendance, spent a large part of their time out of school hours in active work or outdoor sports, so that there was but slight opportunity of producing that mental tire and satiety which are so prevalent at the present time. . . . The result was mental stability, strength, and endurance, as well as a dogged determination to get down to the bottom of things, even if it took years or a lifetime to do it. But how different is everything at the present time! The child probably comes into the world loaded down by inherited weakness or tendencies to disease or crime, caused by the high pressure, unnatural life, dissipations, or vices, of its parents. When it gets hungry, which is in a very short time indeed, instead of being fed on the food designed by nature for its sustenance, it is filled up with cow's milk, or some manufactured nostrum; when it cries, it is given brandy, paregoric, or some other narcotic poison, to paralyze its digestive organs into submission; and still many wonder why indigestion is so prevalent among children, and why the use of narcotic poisons is so fearfully on the increase among the people. When scarcely out of the cradle, the child is grappled by the tentacles of our educational system, and they never relax their hold until he has run the gauntlet of the kindergarten, the graded school, high school, college, and university, and emerges a finished product of this system. While much of the work throughout the whole course is illogical, and sins against the symmetrical physical, intellectual, and moral development of the child, the youth, and the man, still it is during the early years of childhood and youth, when the brain is unstable and easily irritated, that the greatest amount of harm is done by the stuffing, cramming processes, the almost endless examinations, and the continual nervous strain and irritation which attend them. That the above statements are no mere jeremiad, but based on actual facts, is conclusively shown by thousands of physical and mental wrecks caused every year by this system: bodies which under better management might have become bulwarks of our national safety, and minds that, if allowed to develop in accordance with nature's laws, might have helped to advance and adorn our civilization instead of being obliged to drag out a weakened, miserable existence or to languish behind prison bars or within the walls of insane asylums. The enormously increased percentage of the insane, as compared with the whole population, within the last twenty or thirty years, is very strong proof that mental stability at least is not increasing. The American home has always been the upbuilder of physical health and integrity, the conservator of mental strength and power, and the preserver of moral rectitude and purity. The sanctity and influence of the home have always been among the strongest bulwarks against physical evils, the greatest safeguards against moral delinquencies, and a powerful protection against mental dissipation; and it naturally follows that anything which tends to lessen the influence exerted by the home upon the people must have a demoralizing effect. No one will deny that the home has lost much of the power which it once exerted over the people. Its sanctity has been invaded and its members have been drawn into clubs, societies, secret organizations, etc., which, if not positively injurious, at least do not possess the strengthening, tranquilizing, and uplifting influences of the home. While it may be claimed that the diffusion of education is so general that it is becoming a rare thing to find people who are not able to read and write, it is also true that crime is on the increase; and that this increase is not confined to the illiterate, but includes many with a good, nay, even a superior, education. The intellectual faculties have been cultivated at the expense of the moral nature, and the result is an asymmetric development—a social pariah, a degenerate. We are wont to boast about our progress, our liberty, and our freedom; but I fear that we forget that the most rapid and brilliant results are not always a sure criterion of the most enduring advancement; that liberty may not mean physical, intellectual, and moral disenthrallment; but license leading to the most abject slavery; and that freedom, instead of breathing forth a spirit that ennobles and uplifts mankind to a higher and better plane, may exhale a mephitic poison which degrades and besets all who come within the range of its baleful influence. No better illustration of the abuse of this so-called freedom can be cited than the material appearing in our modern newspapers. Their columns are not only filled with falsehood and misrepresentation, but reek with sensationalism and vileness, which make them unfit for decent homes. They bristle with advertisements of vile nostrums, which not only295 defraud and swindle the unwary and ignorant, but carry death and devastation in their trail. In one column appears a panegyric on the elevating influences of the press, and in another the notice of an abortifacient remedy which carries death in its wake, and makes virtual murderers of the people who use it,—and if justice and right were done, would make the newspapers accomplices in the transaction. In another place can be seen the report of an eloquent sermon, accompanied in a near-by column by the heartrending appeal of some scoundrel and fakir to the real or imaginary victims—principally the latter—of youthful indiscretions or lost manhood. And still we are told that the newspapers are the great educators of the people! If guiding youthful minds into sensationalism and vice, if acquainting them with and showing them how to commit crime, if giving assistance to the vilest frauds and swindles and helping them to plunder a credulous and ignorant public,—if these and many other similar things for which the newspapers are directly responsible, are high and noble, then truly they are performing their mission in a highly successful manner. The spread of venereal diseases, tuberculosis, and carcinoma, together with the widespread use of stimulants and narcotic poisons, has done much to taint the blood and lower the vital resistance of the people, so that it is doubtful whether much of the progress made in sanitary science and the stamping out of contagious and infectious diseases has not been counterbalanced by a lowered general vitality. . . . Whether we, in adopting the corruption, profligacy, and crimes of Greece and Rome, shall follow Greece and Rome to degeneracy and extinction, will largely depend on our disposition and ability to stem the adverse tendencies which are sapping our physical vigor, undermining our mental strength, and debasing our moral nature. If we would avert the fate of Rome, we must avoid the evils that led to Rome's downfall. MY PORTION.
By George Klingle
To count no cost in time or will;
To simply try my place to fill;
To do because the act is right;
To live as living in His sight;
To try each day his will to know;
To tread the way his will may show;
To regulate each plan I make,
Each hope I build, or hope I break;
To please the heart which pleases me,
Through daily tireless ministry;
To live for him who gave me life;
To strive for him who suffered strife
And sacrificed through death for me —
Let this my joy, my portion be.
— George Klingle. HOUSEKEEPING
By Sadie Cassell
The main object in keeping house is to have a place for everything, and then keep it there. I find that it does not take half so much work to put things in their places as it does to throw them here and there, and when you want things, you will have to hunt for them, and then may not be able to find them. When I was but a child, my mother made one impression on my mind, that has stayed with me all my life; that was in putting everything in order before going to bed at night. What a nice thing it is to get up in the morning with everything in order! But if we retire at night with everything thrown here and there, we find in the morning there is so much to do,—the house is in such a bad shape,—we can not invite Jesus in; so we do not have family worship. Some persons say, If I had but one child, as you have, I could keep my house straight too. But the child should be taught to have a place for everything, and to keep his things in order as well as the older ones. A child ought to have a certain room for his own, and to keep it clean and straight. If there is no room that can be spared for this purpose, give him at least a corner in a room, and teach him to keep it clean and in order. If we “train up a child in the way he should go: . . . when he is old, he will not depart from it.” My little girl, four years old, will not go to sleep at night until all her playthings are put in their proper place. I believe our homes should be the places for us to let our light shine the most. When we get the house in order, let us look outside, and see how our yards look,—not only the front part, but the back yard as well. The angels are as likely to come in the back way as the front; but I have seen some yards I fear the holy angels would hardly pass through. Although I am a lover of the health reform, I believe we should be just as careful in keeping our bodies clean, and our surroundings neat and in order. ‘Filth is a breeder of disease.’—‘Healthful Living,’ page 66. ‘Fresh air, exercise, pure water, and clean, sweet premises, are within the reach of all with but little expense.’—‘Testimony for the Church,’ No. 32, page 199. “BREAD IN THE SOUTH.”
By Jessie G. Young
It seems that this subject has become a live topic in our paper since Sister Henry mentioned it in her report of the Texas camp-meeting. What she said is true of some bread here; but for the benefit of some who may desire to come South, but are puzzled over the “molding staff of life,” wondering how they would live without their good light bread, I will say, Come along. If you make good bread that will keep where you are, your bread and water shall be sure here. I well remember when we used to bake a quantity of light bread, enough to last on the road to, and for several days during, camp-meeting; and sometimes before we reached the camp-ground the bread would mold, and have to be thrown away. Poor sisters! we would then have to spend much of our time on the camp-ground, baking in ovens in open air, and our eyes would be red with weeping smoke-tears. (We did not rent stoves then as now.) But why all that trouble?—Well, we were very careful not to let our bread bake long enough to form a hard crust. We liked soft bread. Then when it was baked, as we supposed, to be sure that our teeth should not be injured by masticating the hard bread, we would sprinkle the loaves with water, wrap in a damp cloth while warm, and put away in our bread box “to sweat.” Do you wonder that our bread had to be thrown away on our two- or three-days’ journey? For several years light has been shining on the bread-maker’s pathway, and those who have gathered up the rays enjoy camp-meeting more than formerly,—and home life, too, for that matter. I attended the Texas camp-meeting, and I never before enjoyed so much freedom from the “bread care” while on the camp-ground. Five days before the time to start, I opened a sack of good flour, and began to make my camp-meeting bread. Each day I made six good-sized loaves. I made the whole sack of flour into bread. I did not have a cut-and-dried recipe by which to make it, but good flour, good yeast, a good stove, and good wood. That bread baked—baked till a nice, thick, brown crust formed on top, sides, and bottom. Then it was turned out, and permitted to get entirely cold. A quantity of it was sliced thin, and made into zwieback. All was put into a box made for the purpose, and my camp-meeting bread was ready to load into the wagon. Did it keep?—Of course it did. We remained on the camp-ground two or three days after the ten-days’ meeting, and had some of the bread to use on the road home. This bread with two dozen jars of canned fruit formed the greater part of our camp-meeting bill of fare. Such a comfortable time we sisters may enjoy at camp-meeting if we are willing to live on good, plain food, wear neat, plain, comfortable clothing, and attend the services instead of spending our time cooking and dressing. DID YOU KNOW?
By Mabelle P. Clapp
Did you know that up in heaven
To the cherubs small were given
All the ragged bits of blue
Cut out when the stars shone through;
That they, with the daintiest skill,
Trimmed and stitched and pressed them, till
One dark night, when all was done,
Down they tossed them, one by one,
On the hills and fields below,
For the children — did you know
What they were, these violets blue,
Ere they blossomed, dear, for you?
— Mabelle P. Clapp. BIGGEST GUN IN THE WORLD.
The operation of shrinking a jacket on the sixteen-inch gun at the Watervliet Arsenal having been successfully performed, the great gun is being completed. The first attempt to jacket the tube was unsuccessful, the outer piece having stuck fast a few inches away from the point for which it was intended. The second attempt was successful in every particular. The gun when completed will be the most powerful piece of ordnance in the world, and will weigh, without the carriage, 126 tons. Its length will be forty-nine feet, six inches: the diameter of the breech, six feet, two inches; the size of the bore, sixteen inches. The theoretical range of the piece will be 20.76 miles: weight of projectile, 2,370 pounds. The projectile intended for the big gun is sixty-four inches long, and the powder charge consists of 1,060 pounds. The powder will cost $265, and the projectile $600, so that the cost of every discharge, exclusive of wear and tear on the gun and pay of people employed in its manipulation, will be $865. The projectile, with its initial velocity of 2,600 feet a second, will penetrate wrought iron to the depth of 41.6 inches. To attain its maximum range the projectile will reach an elevation of five miles, and the pressure on the gun at the time of its discharge will be thirty-six thousand pounds to the square inch. Although the gun is of monstrous proportions, it is put together with the nicety of a delicate instrument and the difference between the outside radius of the gun itself and the inside radius of the jacket which was shrunk on last week was only six one-hundredths of an inch after the jacket had been heated. The jacket weighing thirty tons, must be lifted while hot from the furnace and swung up over the gun and then lowered into place. “The slightest inequality in the heating,” said Colonel Farley, the ordnance officer in charge of the work, “an error of the smallest fraction of an inch in the measurements, and all these months of preparation will have been wasted, for once that jacket sticks,—that ends the effort. It can not be heated again and taken off. It must be cut off. Then the work must be done all over again.” It was necessary to construct new machinery to make this gun, a notable piece being a lathe 135 feet long, with a swing of nine feet. The Cost of Maintaining a Kerosene Lamp
THE cost of maintaining a kerosene lamp is one eighth that of any other luminant. THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE.
The death of Maxentius and the conquest of Rome by Constantine, secured to Constantine at one stroke, the whole of the Western empire of Rome. As before related, it occurred Oct. 8, A. D. 312. In the month of March, A. D. 313, Constantine and Licinius met at Milan, and formed an alliance, and jointly issued an edict, granting “to the Christians, and to all, the free choice to follow that mode of worship which they may wish;” decreeing “that no freedom at all shall be refused to Christians to follow or to keep their observances or worship, but that to each one power be granted to devote his mind to that worship which he may think adapted to himself.” This freedom was “absolutely granted to them.” The privilege was “also granted to others to pursue that worship and religion they wish, . . . that each may have the privilege to select and to worship whatsoever divinity he pleases.” Plainly, with reference to the separation of religion and the state, this edict put the Roman empire exactly in the attitude in which the United States government stood at its organization and under its Constitution. But, as we have seen, the rulers of the apostate church were anxious “to assert the government as a kind of sovereignty for themselves;” and there was another portion of this edict upon which they seized and which they made to work to their advantage, in securing a union of the church with the state, by which they could indeed assert the imperial government as a kind of sovereignty for themselves. That other portion of the edict commanded that all the property of the Christians which had been destroyed, or confiscated, in the late persecution, should be restored “to the Christians.” And it was definitely stated in the edict that this contemplated “the right of the whole body of Christians,” and commanded that this property should “without any hesitancy,” “be restored to these same Christians; that is, to their body, and to each conventicle respectively.” Now no sooner were the claims presented, and restitution begun, according to the edict, than the Catholic Church raised the issue that only those in communion with her were Christians: and so insisted that only these were entitled to the restored property. She thus forced a governmental interpretation of the term “Christians,” and a governmental decision as to who could properly bear the title of “Christians.” And, since that church had given to Constantine her active support, in his campaign against Maxentius, which brought to him the whole power of the Western empire, this issue which she raised, was pressed with this added force of the political favor which she had rendered to him, and for which she demanded a corresponding return. Accordingly, upon the first appeal, Constantine issued an edict to the proconsul in the province from which the appeal came, in which he said: “It is our will that when thou shalt receive this epistle, if any of those things belonging to the Catholic Church of the Christians in the several cities of other places, are now possessed either by the decurions or any others, these thou shalt cause immediately to be restored to their churches; since we have previously determined that whatsoever these same churches before possessed, shall be restored to their right.” This was not true in fact; it was not “the Catholic Church of the Christians,” but “the Christians,” “the whole body of Christians,” to whom it was “previously determined” that the property should be restored. Yet this interpretation being that of the supreme imperial power, was final as to what was implied in this edict. And this interpretation was in effect a decision that those of the Catholic Church were the only Christians, and made the edict of Milan, from the beginning, bear that meaning. It having now been decided that only those of the Catholic Church were Christians, the issue was next raised as to what was in truth the Catholic Church. A division of the church in Africa, that was not just then in communion with the bishop of Rome, claimed, equally with the communion of Rome, to be the Catholic Church. This also called for a decision on the part of the emperor. Accordingly, still in the same month of the issue of the original edict of Milan.—March, A. D. 313,—Constantine addressed an edict to the proconsul of the province in which the question was raised, in which he specified that to be “the Catholic Church, over which Cæcilianus presides.” Cæcilianus was the principal bishop in that province over that portion of the church which was in communion with the bishop of Rome. This was, therefore, in effect, with the decisions already made, to settle it that only those of the Catholic Church were Christians, and only those who were in communion with the bishop of Rome were the Catholic Church. The effect of this was, of course, to make the Church of Rome the standard in the new imperial religion. However, the opposite party was not satisfied with this decision, but sent a petition to the emperor, requesting that he refer the matter to the bishops of Gaul for a decision. Constantine accepted their petition, and responded, so far as to refer it to a council of bishops. But, instead of having the council composed of the bishops of Gaul, he had it composed of the bishop of Rome and eighteen others, of Italy, before whom the contending parties were required to appear in Rome for the hearing. The bishop of Rome here concerned and definitely named in the edict, was “Miltiades;” the same as “Melchiades” who was the very bishop who had invited Constantine to come from Gaul to the rescue of oppressed Israel under the Pharaoh, Maxentius; and who thus early began to reap in imperial and joint authority, the fruit of that episcopal-political endeavor. And, thus, one of the very first steps in that union of church and state, was that “the bishop of Rome sits, by the imperial authority, at the head of a synod of Italian bishops, to judge the disputes of the African Donatists.”—Milman. The council met Oct. 2, A. D. 313. Of course, the council decided in favor of the Church of Rome. The defeated party appealed again to the emperor, asking for a larger council to consider the matters involved. Again their appeal was heard, and a council composed of “many bishops” was appointed and held at Arles, in Gaul, August, A. D. 314. This council confirmed the decision of the previous council, in favor of the Church of Rome as the Catholic Church. The defeated party again appealed—this time for a decision from the emperor himself. Constantine held a consistory, listened to their plea, and, in harmony with the councils already held, pronounced in favor of the Church of Rome as the Catholic Church. The course of the positive growth, in favor and distinction, of the Catholic Church, throughout this whole procedure, is distinctly and most suggestively marked in the expressions used by the emperor in the successive documents which he issued in connection with the question. As we have seen, in the edict of Milan, March, A. D. 313, “the whole body of Christians” were included, without any distinctions or any suggestion as to any distinction. But, when the issue was raised that only those of the Catholic Church were Christians, the next edict ran, in the same month: “The Catholic Church of the Christians.” Next, in his epistle summoning the first council, in the autumn of A. D. 313, he calls it “the holy Catholic Church.” Next, in the summer of A. D. 314, in his epistle summoning the second council, he referred to the doctrine of the Catholic Church as embodying: “our *most holy religion.” Then, at last, when the controversy had run its course of appeal to where it came to him in person, and he had rendered the final decision, a document, issued A. D. 316, granted money, and announced the imperial favor, to the “ministers of the legitimate and most holy Catholic religion.” This final document also gave to Cæcilianus and to the party who, with him, were in communion with the bishop of Rome, authority to call upon the imperial officers of the province, to enforce conformity upon those who “wished to divert the people from the most holy Catholic Church by a certain pernicious adulteration;” and commanded him: “If thou seest any of these men persevering in this madness, thou shalt without any hesitancy proceed to the aforesaid judges, and report it to them, that they may animadvert upon them, as I have commanded them when present.” Thus was formed the union of church and state, out of which came the Beast, and all that the papacy has ever been, or ever can be. And it all grew out of the interpretation of a governmental document that was perfectly just and innocent in itself. Next week we shall set down here events in the likeness of this which have already appeared in the United States, and which go that far to show here the making of the Image of the Beast.