God is seeking to perfect a people to reign with him eternally. The divine call of grace extends to all men, and some there will be out of every nation, class, and condition who will heed the invitation. It is the work of the divine Architect to take these rough, unhewn stones from the various quarries of life and human experience, and by his grace shape them and fashion them after the divine similitude. It is not unreasonable to expect that during this transforming process some should still manifest at times the evil traits of their natures, revealing weak human propensities instead of the spirit of the divine Teacher.
The fundamental principle of the plan of salvation is the union of the human with the divine. This principle extends all through the operations of the church of God in the earth. Throughout the history of the church the imperfections of the human agent may be seen. The enemies of the Lord have taken occasion by this to blaspheme and to throw discredit upon the church and truth of God. Some there are to-day who look at the professed people of God, and searching for the mistakes and weaknesses rather than for the opposite traits, count the work of grace a failure, and throw discredit upon the holy cause of religion. We can see in the church of God to-day many failures. No institution nor organization is perfect in its operation. There is no man in official position but who makes mistakes. Some there are who deny the power of the truth they possess, and by their course of conduct bring discredit upon the cause of the Master.
This has ever been so in the work of God. From the holy presence of his Maker, Lucifer went out to sow the seeds of doubt, variance, and hatred. In the days of Israel, when God, by the open manifest token of his presence in the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, was leading his people, there were found Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and two hundred fifty leading princes of Israel who raised the standard of revolt. Yet God was with Israel and his presence was going before them. Though some refused him their allegiance and were unwilling to be molded by the experiences through which he brought them, there were others who gained blessed victories and came off more than conquerors through his grace. It was none the less the work of God when he manifested his displeasure in consuming Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their wicked associates, than when he led his children triumphantly through the Red Sea.
Among the men chosen as the intimate associates of the Lord Jesus through his earthly ministry, and as the pillars of his church, was found one who, instead of yielding to the holy influence of his divine Teacher, became the tool of evil men and the agent of Satan in bringing about the death of the Son of God. But notwithstanding this failure on the part of one of the chosen twelve, God was still leading in his work.
It is the same to-day. The mistakes of the human are not chargeable to our great Leader. Man fails because he refuses to submit to God's way, because of the iron resistance in his nature which prevents him from being fashioned as yielding clay in the hands of the great Potter. God is true though every one of his professed children fails properly to represent his life and character. The foundation of God standeth sure even though men may make shipwreck of their faith. This truth which we profess to believe as a people has its foundation in the eternal Word of truth. This great movement with which we are connected will triumph ultimately, and some there are who will triumph with it. Some will be sanctified by the message of God to this last generation.
Dear reader, you may be among that number. The determination of the question, however, largely rests with your own free choice, with the way you relate yourself to God and to his work. We may look at our brethren and see much to discourage us. If we keep our eyes fixed upon the path that poor weak humanity has made, we shall become confused; but if we fasten our eyes upon the road that our blessed Lord has marked out before us and if, instead of seeing how far the human agent has come short, we see what marvels have been wrought by the grace of God in lifting him up from his lowly estate, we shall find much to encourage us in the divine life.
Christ is our example. We are not to take the lives of our associates as the gage of our conduct in Christian experience. We have one master, Christ the Lord. We have one perfect example, our great High Priest. Let us look to the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, and not try to draw inspiration from the darkness of human error and weakness around us. By this course we shall gather strength for the conflict, and come off more than conquerors in the end.
F. M. W.
A Steel Highway Through Africa
By W. A. S.
THE pushing forward of the Cape-to-Cairo Railway has already made a great change in African mission enterprise. By a journey of a few days, now, our missionaries reach points that represented many weeks or months of travel by ox-cart but a few years ago. The highway for commerce means also a highway for the gospel herald.
In the Outlook of Nov. 25, 1911, Mr. E. Alexander Powell, of the Royal Geographical Society of England, gives the latest information regarding this great African railway project, launched and pushed by the late Cecil Rhodes. The writer says:—
In February of the present year freight- and passenger-trains were in operation straight through to Elizabethville, in the heart of the Belgian Kongo, 2,316 miles north of Cape Town, and only 280 miles from the southern end of Lake Tanganyika.
Speaking of the route through Barotseland,—which leads past our first Pemba station, from which Elder W. H. Anderson and his associates are pushing onward the chain of out-stations toward the Kongo border,—Mr. Powell says:—
The trip through Barotseland is more enlivening than any circus that ever put up canvas. All along the line are fields of corn—“mealies” they call it in South Africa—with rude towers atop of which a native sits constantly on guard to drive off the herds of wild pigs which raid the crops at night, and the troops of baboons which descend upon them by day. Many of these baboons are six feet high, and weigh two hundred pounds, and there are few more extraordinary sights than seeing a score or more of them slipping away after raiding a farmer’s corn-field and sweet-potato patch, their spoils tucked under their arms, for all the world like so many schoolboys.
Stroll three miles up or down the Zambesi from the railway bridge, and you can see hippos as easily as you can at the zoo in Central Park; in northwest Rhodesia herds of bushbuck, zebras, and ostriches scamper away at sight of the train; and as you lie in your sleeping-berth at night, while the train halts on lonely sidings, you can hear the roar of lions, and see the gleam of the campfires with which the railway employees protect themselves. On one occasion, when our train was lying on a siding south of the Zambesi, the conductor of the dining-car suddenly exclaimed, “Look there, gentlemen, look over there!” His excitement was justified, for from over a screen of bushes,8scarcely a biscuit’s throw away, a herd of five giraffes craned their ridiculous necks, and peered at us curiously. When I was traveling through northwest Rhodesia by the Zambesi Express, some months ago, our engine struck a bull elephant which had decided to contest the right of way. As the train was running at full speed, both engine and elephant were derailed. Returning that way some days later, we noted that the local station-master had scraped the Gargantuan skull to the bone, filled it with earth, and set it on the station platform as a sort of jardinière to hold geraniums.
Doubtless the road has during this year considerably lessened that 280 miles separating it from the southern end of long Lake Tanganyika, which affords steamer transportation northward. And as for the northern division of the railway, being built down from Cairo, the end of 1911 was to see the railroad at El Obeid, within 1,200 miles of the northern end of Lake Tanganyika. About 1,400 miles more of track-laying, and the road can accept passengers from Cairo to Cape Town. And most of the way the road will run through lands altogether unknown fifty years ago. Mr. Powell graphically describes the trip that will soon be possible:—
The traveler who climbs into the Cape-to-Cairo Limited at the Quay Station in Alexandria, in response to the conductor’s cry of “All aboard! All aboard for Cape Town!” can lean from the window of his compartment as the train approaches Cairo and see the misty outlines of the pyramids, those mysterious monuments of antiquity which were hoary with age when London was a cluster of mud huts and Paris was yet to be founded in the swamps beside the Seine; at Luxor he will pass beneath the shadow of ruined Thebes, a city beside which Athens and Rome are ludicrously modern; at Assuan he will catch a glimpse of the greatest dam ever built,—a mile and a quarter long and built of solid masonry weighing a million tons,—holding in check the waters of one of the longest rivers in the world; at Khartum, peering through the blue-glass windows which protect the passengers’ eyes from the blinding sun-glare, he can see the statue of Gordon, seated on his bronze camel, peering northward across the desert in search of the white helmets that came too late; at Entebbe his eyes will be dazzled by the shimmering waters of the Victoria Nyanza, barring Lake Superior, the greatest of all fresh-water seas; at Ujiji he will see the black-and-white standard of Germany floating over the spot where Stanley, emerging from the jungle, lifted his helmet at sight of a gaunt, fever-stricken man, and said, “Dr. Livingstone, I believe?” He will hold his breath in awe as the train shoots out over the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, for there will lie before him the mightiest cataract in the world—an unbroken sheet of falling, roaring, smoking water, as long as from the Grand Central Station [New York] to Union Square, and two and a half times the height of the American Fall at Niagara; at Kimberley he will see the great pits in the earth which supply the women of the world with diamonds; in the outskirts of Johannesburg he will see the mountains of ore from which comes one third of the gold supply of the world. And, finally, when his train has at last come to a halt under the glass roof of the Victoria Terminal in Cape Town, with close on six thousand miles of track behind it, the traveler, if he has any imagination and any appreciation in his soul, will make a little pilgrimage to that spot on the slopes of Table Mountain known as “World’s View,” where another statue of that same bulky, thick-set, shabbily clad man [Cecil Rhodes], this time guarded by many British lions, stares northward over Africa. He will take his stand in front of that mighty memorial and, lifting his hat, will say, “You, sir, were a great man, the greatest this benighted continent has ever known; and if one day it is transformed into a land of civilization, of peace, and of prosperity, it will be due, more than anything else, to the great iron highway, from the Nile’s mouth to the continent’s end, which is the fulfilment of your dream.”
The words of the magazine writer are too strong for us to repeat. We think of Moffat and Livingstone, and others, men and women, whose lives laid upon the altar of Africa did more to open the Dark Continent than ever could be done by gold and steel. But we recognize in the dauntless spirit of the great South African, and in the explorers and the pioneers of commerce, agents of divine Providence that has decreed the opening up of the African continent, with all the rest of the world, in this generation; because the time has come when the last gospel message is to be carried to every tribe and people. We are beholding wonderful things in these last days.
W. A. S.
Creation, Evolution, and the Gospel
By W. W. P.
In the first verse of the Bible there is stated a truth which lies at the very foundation of the gospel: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The inspired record of the creative work which is found in the first chapter of Genesis was not furnished primarily in order to make known scientific truth, although it does give the only authoritative account of creation. The purpose of the whole revelation found in the Scriptures is to make known the gospel of salvation; and the enduring foundations of this gospel are laid in the opening chapter of the Bible. Concerning the truths based thereupon we submit a few observations:—
1. The true God is distinguished from false gods by the fact that he is the creator. This appeal is found in many places in the Scriptures. For example:—
“All the gods of the peoples are idols; but Jehovah made the heavens.” Ps. 96:5. “Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens, and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.” “The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name.” Jer. 10:11, 16. “For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else.” Isa. 45:18.
2. Worship is due to the true God because he is the maker of heaven and earth:—
“Jehovah is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker.” Ps. 95:3-6. “Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power: for thou didst create all things.” Rev. 4:11. “Worship him that made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.” Rev. 14:7.
3. Creation is an expression in material form of the working of the eternal will of God:—
“Thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they were, and were created.” Rev. 4:11.
This all-powerful will was revealed in creation through the eternal Word, the Son:—
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.” John 1:1-3.
Order is preserved in the universe of God, not because of any force inherent in matter and not by virtue of impersonal laws, arbitrarily established in the beginning, but because of the continuous working of the same will of God to which all matter owes its existence:—
“He [the Son] is before all things, and in him all things consist [that is, hold together].”
The eternal Son “through whom also he made the worlds,” is set forth to us as “upholding all things by the word of his power:”—
“Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these, that bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and for that he is strong in power, not one is lacking.” Isa. 40:26.
4. The eternal Son of God is the mediator for the Father in the creation of all things and in the upholding of all things:—
“For in him [the Son] were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; and9he is before all things, and in him all things consist [that is, hold together].” Col. 1:16, 17. “To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him.” 1 Cor. 8:6.
5. The original heavens and earth overwhelmed by the curse of sin will pass away, and will be succeeded by new heavens and a new earth. So Isaiah prophesied:—
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered nor come into mind.” Isa. 65:17.
The fulfilment of this prophecy is referred to by the apostle Peter:—
“The day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” “But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:10, 13.
The apostle John in vision beheld the fulfilment of this prophecy:—
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.” Rev. 21:1.
6. The inhabitants of the new earth will be new creatures, the product of the new creation:—
“Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17. “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” Gal. 6:15. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.” Eph. 2:10. “Put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.” Eph. 4:24. “Lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him.” Col. 3:9, 10.
7. The original creation is regarded as a birth and the new creation is otherwise spoken of as the new birth:—
“Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth [were born], or ever thou gavest birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Ps. 90:1, 2. “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he can not see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3.
8. The eternal Son, who was the mediator in the original creation, is also the mediator in the new creation:—
“All things have been created through him [the Son], and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell; and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth or things in the heavens. And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him.” Col. 1:16-22. “There is . . . one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him.” 1 Cor. 8:6. “There is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus.” 1 Tim. 2:5.
9. As the eternal Son mediates the will of God in guiding and upholding all material things, so he mediates the will of God for man (the moral law) by writing it in his heart. He is thus the mediator of the new covenant:—
“But now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.” “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” Heb. 8:6, 10.
10. Only he who was the mediator in the original creation can be the mediator in the new creation, the Saviour of sinners:—
“In none other [than Jesus Christ of Nazareth] is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.
11. The eternal Son through whom the Father made the worlds, and who upholds all things by the word of his power, having been made priest, “not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life,” is the one all-sufficient mediator and Saviour:—
“Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Heb. 7:25.
12. The Sabbath of the fourth commandment, which is both a memorial and a sign of the original creation (Ex. 20:8-11; 31:15-17), is also a sign of the new creation or sanctification:—
“Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth them.” Eze. 20:12.
The truths herein set forth constitute the very essence of the gospel of salvation from sin; and the foundation upon which they rest is the facts set forth in the first chapter of Genesis. He who begins by substituting the results of human research for this divine revelation concerning creation, will end by substituting human tradition for the divine revelation of the truths of the gospel, as has been abundantly proved during the present generation. So intimate is the relation between God’s work through his Son in the original creation and his work in the new creation that a wrong view of the former involves a wrong view of the latter. The new theology of the present day is the outgrowth of the acceptance of evolution as the true doctrine of creation. All the essential truths of the gospel, including the belief in the personal, literal advent of our Lord, have been repudiated as the direct consequence of the repudiation of the inspired record of creation. It may, therefore, be truthfully said that the rejection of the first verse of the Bible, which sets forth a personal God as the creator of the heavens and the earth, involves the rejection of the last verse of the Bible, the promise of the literal return of Christ to this earth. The gospel is the gospel of creation, and the sure foundation for it is laid in the first chapter of Genesis.
W. W. P.
The Suicide of Israel—A Lesson
By C. M. S.
THE Jewish nation committed suicide when it chose its own way in preference to the way which God had appointed for it, when it demanded an earthly king in place of the King who was then ruling over them. This is abundantly proved by the subsequent history of that nation. All that God had in view for them as a nation they forfeited when they rejected the Lord of Hosts, choosing a man from among themselves to be their king, and the arm of flesh to be their trust.
God, the great King above all kings, had chosen them to be his own nation, his peculiar people, to represent his government and his character in the midst of the wicked nations dominated by the prince of this world. On the shore of the great sea of moral darkness God had set the lighthouse of Israel for a warning and a refuge.
When Israel rejected God from being king over them, they virtually voiced their preference for a system controlled by a power at enmity with God. Had God cast them off at once as a nation as they had cast him off as a king, they would have perished miserably at the hands of the very nations whose condition they emulated and whose example they followed. But his heart of love still yearned for them, still went out after them, while they were reaping the fruits of their own sowing. In that is shown the unchanging character of the tender, loving Father. From this example of God’s love and pity for the erring, we know what his attitude is toward every straying son and daughter of Adam. He has told it in his Word; but he has demonstrated it in his dealings with ancient Israel.10
The key to Israel’s fall was in refusing to harken to God. Though he warned them in season, “rising up early and speaking,” they turned deaf ears to the warnings, mocked the messengers, despised the messages, scoffed at the prophets until “there was no remedy;” and the only way left to bring repentance and contrition was to let affliction do its scourging work among them. So Israel went down under the ponderous blows of the very nations she had forsaken her God to imitate. The nations around her became subject to the great king of Babylon. Israel had asked to be like the nations around her, and she went with them to Babylon in chains, to see her treasures and the goodly vessels of her sanctuary adorning the temples of heathen deities. And so it ever is when we choose out a way for ourselves in preference to the way which God has set for our feet. God allowed Israel to learn the lesson of what it means to trust in the arm of flesh; and that experience was written for our admonition.
God did not utterly cast off Israel as a people when she cast him off as a king. Four hundred ninety years were given to that people after their captivity in Babylon, to give them a chance to profit by their experience of reaping what they had sown. The crucifixion of the Prince of the prophets at their demand, filled up the cup of that nation’s wrong-doing, and God pronounced desolate the earthly house in which he had chosen to set up the symbol of his government.
Israel’s rejection of her King and her demand for his crucifixion is a type of what the great mass of the so-called Christian world will do before the second coming of Christ, when it turns from the simple gospel, and gives its worship and its influence to the “beast” power that will dominate the world at that time, and will call for the execution of the loyal servants of Jesus Christ. There were a few faithful ones who stood unflinchingly for God in the midst of all the idolatry and slavery of ancient Babylon. So while “all the world” is wondering “after the beast,” there will be found a band of faithful ones who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
Israel committed suicide as a nation in rejecting her King. We do the same thing individually when we reject the law of God, the rule of his government, and turn to the commandments of men. Christ told the Jews that, though they professed better things than to slay the prophets, as their fathers did, yet their very acts showed them to be children of those same fathers. Notwithstanding their protestations, they slew the One who sent the prophets that their fathers slew. They had all the experience of the past to look back upon and profit by; but they did worse than their fathers. Their refusal to harken to the voice of God was responsible for that sad fact. So, when we reject the Word of God and his warnings and admonitions, we do not know to what lengths we will go in opposition to God. It led the Jews to crucify Christ; it will lead the people of this age to put him to death again in the person of his unswerving people.
God is still warning men against the rejection of the only way wherein salvation lies, against the rejection of the King of kings. Israel fell as a nation through the rejection of him and his way; and men will go down as individuals to everlasting destruction by taking the course that Israel pursued. There is no safety outside the ways of God; no safety nor hope in allegiance to any other power. But they who are his, will “take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.”
C. M. S.
A Year of Mourning
By C. M. S.
At the recent consistory in Rome, during which nineteen new cardinals were elevated to what is known as the sacred college, the Pope began his address by declaring that “the past year had been one of mourning for the church.” His reason for denominating this year one of mourning was that this was the year of “Italy’s jubilee, which recalls vividly the spoliation of the church, and also because of the impunity wherewith the Protestants and Free Masons oppose the Church of Rome.” The reports state that “he lamented the separation of the church and state in Portugal,” and attributed it to “the same iniquitous body,” expressing the hope that the “Portuguese nation, boasting of centuries of attachment to the church, would react against her enemies.”
In view of the teachings of the Scriptures and in view of certain developments and certain conditions in the United States, this declaration of Pope Pius X is worthy of some consideration. The Roman hierarchy considers all Christendom its field of operation, and in fact every soul in the world the subject of its sovereign domination, and considers that church despoiled of its rights and of its goods wherever there is a separation of church and state. This is demonstrated in the Pope’s lament concerning recent developments in Portugal. Those who have brought about the separation of church and state there, are denominated as enemies of the church. The Italian government is also considered the enemy of the church, in that by its action in 1870 temporal dominion was taken away from the Holy See. During the year 1911 Italy celebrated the jubilee of Italian unity. This Italian unity, of course, is coincident with the abolition of the temporal sovereignty of the Pope. Therefore while Italy rejoiced, the Papacy mourned. While Portugal was celebrating her independence of priestly domination, Rome was mourning for the loss of what she considers legitimately hers.
The apostle Paul in his letter to the Hebrews commends the members of the church in that they had “taken joyfully” the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had in heaven a better and more enduring substance. But the Papacy has not taken joy in the spoiling of what she considers her goods. She has made her house a house of mourning, while these governments were making theirs a house of joy. Their time of jubilee has been her time of weeping.
The same apostle in his letter to the Romans says this: “Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” Rom. 12: 14, 15. This is an inspired admonition to the followers of Christ for all time and all places; therefore if the Roman hierarchy were truly what she professes to be—a true follower of the One who inspired this admonition—we would see her rejoicing with Italy in her jubilation, and rejoicing with Portugal in her new-found independence. On both of these counts we find this system refusing to follow the plain admonition of the Inspired Word. She is neither rejoicing with those who rejoice, nor rejoicing in the spoiling of her goods.
C. M. S.
The Perplexity of Many
By P. M. W.
UNDER this heading the Christian Advocate of Dec. 21, 1911, speaks of the lack of apparent genuineness in some of the present-day conversions. Quoting a letter from one of its subscribers, it says:—
We have been having extra meetings in our church for the past three weeks, and as a result about twenty names have been added to the church roll. With the exception of three, all of them were children ranging from five to twelve years of age. It is difficult to account for the great difference in things in the present day. There does not seem to be any such thing as real conviction of sin and wrestling for conversion, such as there was formerly. Now it is simply inducing all the members of the church to go forward and kneel at the altar, to show the outsiders how easy it is; and then when they have come to the altar, in a little while some member says to them: “You are saved; you know you are; rise up now with us.” The next Sunday they stand in front of the altar, and are asked a few questions, the answers of which are placed in their mouths by the preacher himself. This is a very good thing under the circumstances, as generally the persons do not seem to realize the importance of the step they are taking enough to be able11to answer intelligently any question about their spiritual condition.
Persons entering the church through this superficial experience have no real change wrought in their lives. They continue to do as they have done in the past:—
After they become members, there does not seem to be any necessity for any particular change in their manner of life. They may attend church or remain away; they may spend Sunday in riding or doing anything else in the line of pleasure. They may go to dancing parties, and if they “keep paid up” in their envelope, nothing is said.
Comparing this sort of religious experience with that of former days, this subscriber says:—
“If everything that goes on nowadays in the churches is right, to what an awful amount of unnecessary deprivation our parents and grandparents subjected themselves, under their ideas of a Christian’s duty.”
The chief cause of this condition of things in the Christian church is ascribed to the ministers of the gospel, who this reader feels should call the people to a higher standard of Christian living, even though by so doing their congregations were materially diminished:—
It seems to me that the prime cause of the lack of interest and the desultory attendance of members at services, and the great falling off of reverence paid to ministers of the gospel, is the ministers’ own fault. Many of them do not respect themselves or the dignity of the church as they should. They do this probably for fear of a loss of popularity for themselves and of membership for the church. I fear it would be difficult in some parts of the country to find a minister now who would not rather have a membership of 500 or 600, with two thirds of them lifeless contributors, than 200 good, earnest Christians.
In concluding, the Advocate adds:—
The foregoing makes the reader wonder whether it resembles any situation of which he is cognizant.
It is to be regretted that such situations exist on every hand. The line of demarcation between the church and the world has been well-nigh obliterated. It is safe to say that there are scores who are enrolled as members of the Christian church who know nothing in their experience of genuine conversion, or of the power of the changed life. The great Christian church needs to call its members to a higher plane of Christian thought and living.
P. M. W.
Note and Comment
To Control the Courts
IN the Appeal to Reason of May 20, 1911, we find the following most significant paragraph:—
The fight at the polls this fall will center around the adoption of the initiative and referendum and the recall amendments to the Constitution. Under the provisions of the recall amendment, the judges of the supreme court of California can be retired! These are the men who will decide the fate of the kidnapped iron-workers! Don’t you see what it means, comrades, to have in the hands of an intelligent, organized, militant working class the political power to recall the present capitalist judges, and put on the bench our own men? Was there ever such an opportunity for effective work?—No, not since socialism first raised its crimson banner on the shores of Morgan’s country! The election for governor and State officers of California does not occur until 1914. But with the recall at our command, we can and will put our own men in office, without waiting for a regular election!
Such an open and bold declaration by a class, of its intent to capture and control the judges of the courts, we do not remember ever to have seen in print before. Such a declaration as this makes it evident at once that what is desired is not a vindication of truth or a fair and impartial trial; but instead there is a set purpose to put upon the bench of California, and for that matter upon the bench of every State in the Union, men who will do the bidding of a class, and be under the thumb of that class, to render such decisions as it may demand. If the people of this country need an argument to prove that system’s unworthiness of public recognition, it is furnished by the above-quoted paragraph.
The Opium Traffic
COMMISSIONER CARBEL, of the Internal Revenue Bureau, in his annual report, makes the declaration that the smoking of opium has become a wide-spread vice in this country. Various journals are taking up the matter, and are urging upon Congress the passing of legislation which will result in remedying the evil, at least in a measure. Drastic laws and rigid enforcement are demanded in view of the fact that much opium which comes to this country through legal channels finds many loopholes later, through which it passes out into the illicit trade. In many raids that have been made by officials upon opium dens, young persons of both sexes have been found smoking the deadly drug.
Sunday Laws Not Needed
From the Christian Register of Oct. 12, 1911, we quote the following sensible statement:—
What we need is not Sunday laws, but enactments which will give all who work for wages one day in the week free from tasks. The wage for the week should be for a week of six working-days, with some day to be agreed upon for rest. The churches can not do better than to work for such a measure of relief, leaving it to the choice of the worker whether he shall take his rest upon Sunday or upon some other day.
Surely no one can deny that every individual is entitled to one day of rest in seven, but in order to obtain this day it is not necessary that church and state should be united, enforcing upon all the people an ordinance of the church in which only a part of the people believe.
The Wonderful Book
From time to time we see reports of the wonderful work that has been accomplished by the Bible alone in localities where no human preacher had ever been heard. One of our exchanges has the following interesting account of such a work:—
Last December a colporteur of the American Bible Society in Brazil was summoned to a remote interior district. On arriving, he found a village which had never had a missionary, but had adopted the Bible as its guide. Three years earlier a political refugee, named Manoel Bispo, wandering on the frontiers of the state of Sao Paulo, heard the people speak of the Word of God to men, a few copies of which had been scattered through that section by the Bible society’s agents. Later, while hiding in the woods, in great loneliness and distress, his thought returned to what he had heard, and he determined to secure for himself a copy of the wonderful Book. This required a journey of a thousand miles to Rio de Janeiro and back. On his return to his home he read the Bible, by himself and to those of his neighbors who would listen, and the Spirit honored the Word by giving it a hold upon reader and hearers. A church has been organized from those whose hearts have been changed by its influence.
This victory of the Word unaided in a land of darkness demonstrates anew its power over the hearts of men to purify and uplift. Where it has free course, superstition and heathenism must give way. Where it is hidden away from the people or denied them, idolatry, superstition, darkness, and misery flourish.
War on Tuberculosis
THE great white plague, as the disease tuberculosis has come to be known, has proved itself a plague in more than one particular. The harvest of death which it has reaped has been an enormous one during the years that are past, but it may not be generally known that during only one year—the year 1911—fourteen and one-half million dollars were spent in the war against this terrible plague in the United States alone. According to the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, the amount expended during 1911 is about the same as that spent in the same work during the previous year. Of this $14,500,000 the State of New York alone raised $3,550,000. More than ten million dollars have already been appropriated by State legislatures for this battle with tuberculosis in the year 1912.