We stand face to face with great crises,—crises in the home, in the church, in the state, in society. Warring elements ever striving for the mastery are already engaged in hand-to-hand conflict. In the home the integrity of the marriage institution is threatened; in the church it is the culmination of the deadly conflict which has been waged between truth and error through all the ages; in the state it is a strife between the various ideals of government and between law and lawlessness; in the industrial life of the people it is the long-drawn-out struggle between capital and labor, merged in this period of the world's history into strong organizations and combinations seeking their own interests to the undoing of all opposition.
This industrial struggle promises to be one of the thrilling and dramatic issues of the future. On the one hand it is a struggle in behalf of property rights in the interest of invested capital; on the other it is a fight for existence, for bread and butter, on the part of the great multitude of wage-earners. Combinations of wealth for the purpose of self-protection, and many times self-aggrandizement, on the one hand have served to create combinations and unions of labor on the other. The one has grown more overreaching and domineering; the other has become more aggressive and threatening. One demands the fruits of labor as the reward of invested capital; the other demands the machinery, the mill, the mine, the railroad, and the implements of labor as the legitimate fruit of its industry.
This demand on the part of organized labor is known as the doctrine of syndicalism. This theory, according to the New York Evening Post of Nov. 7, 1912, would “brush aside all efforts to settle the so-called class difference by peaceful methods, and would by ‘direct action’ force the other side to yield without governmental interference.” In the accomplishment of this purpose it hesitates at no means that promise success. Representing this doctrine, the I. W. W., or the Industrial Workers of the World, stands among labor organizations as the chief exponent. Says Andre Tridon, in his book “The New Unionism:” —
As a revolutionary organization the Industrial Workers of the World aims to use any and all tactics that will get the results sought with the least expenditure of time and energy. The question of “right” and “wrong” does not concern us.
The Independent recently requested Arturo M. Giovannitti, as a leader of the I. W. W., to interpret this statement of Mr. Tridon's. Mr. Giovannitti is a recognized authority of this order. In the Independent of Oct. 13, 1913, he complies with this request; and as representing the sentiments of that strong, aggressive organization,—the sentiments which are now taking such deep root in the minds of thousands of working men throughout the world,—his words are worthy of careful thought. They surely indicate the crisis which is approaching in the great industrial world. In answer to the question as to whether the order he represents stands for every form of aggressive action, he says:—
It does and it does not. Syndicalism, which is the philosophy of the revolutionary labor movement, has no aprioristic scruples or prejudicial propensity either for or against any and all methods and means of attack and defense, but it maintains that each situation will suggest, through the infallible instinct of the workers themselves, the line of action to pursue and the means to adopt or reject.
Mr. Giovannitti then goes on to argue that in the industrial as well as the political world force is the only arbiter. He quotes what he considers the unrefuted axiom of Marx: “Between two irreconcilable conflicting interests [which engender two opposite rights] the only arbiter that can decide is force.” The writer declares that “the law is no concern of ours,” and that the I. W. W. proposes to create its own laws. He states further:—
There is one thing, however, that every class-conscious working man considers inexpressibly abominable, and this is “scabbery.” Outside of that, any and all means are right and permissible on the sole condition that they bring results disastrous to the master class and advantageous to the proletariat. However shocking this may sound to pious, God-fearing souls, it nevertheless reflects the entire attitude of the Syndicalist Movement in connection with the class struggle. If the attitude is indefensible on moral grounds, so much the better. We never intended to defend it, anyway; we only endeavor to elucidate it.
Relying upon its own power, Mr. Giovannitti declares that the strength of the I. W. W. is in discrediting existing standards:—
The more flippant, defiant, unconventional, and disrespectful it is toward the existing standards of ethics, good manners, law, and order, the more effective it becomes in its work of demolition, which is the most essential task of any revolution. The more it disregards the opinions of outsiders, the more unmindful it is of their approval or condemnation, the more it will fall back on its own power,—on which alone it must exclusively rely,—build its own individual character, forge its own weapons of attack and defense, and hold its own entrenched position against the embattled forces of reaction.12
In concluding his argument, he states: “We are going to do what we need and intend to do, simply because we have the power to do it.” This he claims is the right exercised by the state and by invested capital:—
If you have the power to prevent us, why, it is your privilege, your right, your duty, as a class to do so. And you are doing it. You tore to pieces the Constitution in order to prevent us from assembling and voicing our grievances and our protest. You battered our skulls with your policemen’s clubs. You stabbed us to death with your soldier’s bayonet. You hired your private thug to insult, assault, and murder us. You instructed your private judge to sentence us to the penitentiary or to the scaffold for crimes which had been committed by your hirelings. You ordered your private priest to curse us and damn us to hell. You sweated us, starved us, bled us, dispossessed us, reviled us in your subsidized press—and we bore it all sullenly and doggedly and said nothing.
Was it right? Well, you will perhaps blush hypocritically and say that it was wrong, now that you have done it and fear the consequences of the example you have set, but we say that it was right. It was perfectly right simply because you were defending your interests and privileges, because you had the power to do it, because you were the stronger, and because it is the law of the jungle, from which neither you nor we have yet graduated. But whether it is right or not, we are going to do the same because you have taught us that these tactics are the only ones which bring results.
The extent to which this principle will be carried when the laboring man comes into his own, the writer expresses in these words:—
You will call this a fearsome creed, a sinister philosophy of force. So it is. Our ethics are the ethics of power, those of the absolute social and economic dictatorship of the proletariat, exactly as yours are those of the supreme mastery of plutocracy, or of the exclusive dominion of middle-class cowardice and imbecility.
No, we do not believe in killing or bearing false testimony against you, our neighbor, nor do we want your ass, your ox, or your wife, but we do want your land, your machinery, your mill, your mine, your railroad, and your beloved thirty-six per cent—and we are going to take them back, as surely as you have stolen them from us.
We have nothing in common with you; we do not recognize the “public,” the “people,” the “nation,” Christendom, or humanity; we know only the working class, and rigidly maintain that outside of the working class there is not, nor shall there ever be, any hope of salvation in the great social hereafter.
A pen-picture of this deadly conflict just before us is given by the apostle James. He declares that through the oppression of greed, which holds back the hire of the laborers, violence and bloodshed shall result. The condition which we have facing us is forcibly portrayed in other scriptures: perplexity and distress, and in consequence “men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” Luke 21:25, 26. Happy is the man who, during the perils of today and the fearful ordeal of the future, can rest securely in the faith of a great overruling God and his watchful providence over his children. The promise is, “I will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”
Rejuvenating Spiritualism
THERE is much in the way of trickery and fraud passing for Spiritualism which is not worthy of even so dignified a classification. In many instances Spiritualism itself has failed to cover up its true character, and has shown its real inwardness by manifestations that have been anything but creditable. This is recognized by some of the leaders in this cult.
Dr. Hyslop, a leading Spiritualist, comes out with a “Word to Spiritualists” in which he takes them to task for this lowering of their standard. He thinks that Spiritualism needs a rejuvenation. According to the Outlook of Oct. 11, 1913, he says:—
Why do not men and women in this agnostic age turn with avidity to the Spiritualist’s claim that he has indubitable evidence of a future life? The answer to this question is simple. The Spiritualists have not given any intelligent account of their own evidence, and have allowed their claims to be poisoned by so much real or apparent fraud that intelligent people would have none of it. They have not put ethics and religious earnestness forward as the primary object of their belief and lives.
On the contrary, they have exhibited performances which offend every intellectual and esthetic instinct of men when it comes to beliefs that have assorted themselves with some sort of idealism, and have given us performances that are poorer than conjuring and totally lacking in intellectuality and taste. . . .
Now, all this sort of thing will have to be abandoned if Spiritualism is to obtain any respect at all. It has harbored all sorts of frauds, and taken no adequate means of expelling them from its ranks or its promoters and priests. . . . There is no reason for making a fuss about immortality unless the belief is helpful to morality and religious ideals generally.
Spiritualism may seek to hide what it is for the sake of a respectable standing in the religious world. But a fountain cannot rise above its source, and no more can Spiritualism. It is founded upon the great falsehood uttered by the prince of darkness to our first parents, “Ye shall not surely die.” It affirms that which the Word of God denies; namely, the immortality of the soul and the conscious state of the dead. It is a great system of error, and error only. There is no such thing as rejuvenating it.
Religious Liberty in China
Says the Continent of Oct. 30, 1913:—
Christian missionaries of all names in China are deeply exercised over the sudden and surprising development of a deep-laid plan to force into the constitution of the new Chinese Republic a clause reading: “Confucianism shall ‘be state religion of China, but religious liberty shall be accorded to all the people.” The missionaries have been quite taken off their feet by this outbreak of Confucian sentiment, because from the moment that the republican movement became an assured success every one had taken it for granted that the national government, constructed on American models, would be wholly impartial among the varying religions professed in China.
This is credited to Dr. Chen, an ardent advocate of Confucius and his school. Of the effort to defeat this proposed legislation the Continent continues:—
Though dazed at first, the friends of the American ideal of religious freedom have rallied and appointed a strong committee of seven, with headquarters in Peking, who are already setting afoot a great national agitation to protest against Chen’s shrewd propaganda.
Transferring Church-Membership
SOME of the migratory members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church can read with profit these words by the editor of the Christian Observer of Oct. 22, 1913:—
One of the hardest problems that pastors have to solve is to persuade all church-members who move into the bounds of their congregations to unite with the local church. The instances are few where men and women voluntarily bring their church letter with them and hunt up the pastor and ask to be received into the church. Usually they have to be sought out. They often make miserable excuses for not sending at once for their letters. “I do not know how long I shall be here.” “I do not yet know which church I shall join.” “I am looking around to see where I should like to belong.” “I dislike to take my name off the roll of the old home church.”
With some of these people years pass and they are still out of vital connection with the local church. Much of this is due to real indifference to religion and indisposition to assume responsibilities, and it is often fatal to vigorous Christian development. An old sailor once said: “I am an old sailor, and I have been up and down in the world. It is my rule, as soon as I get into port, to fasten my ship fore and aft to the wharf, although it may cost a little wharfage, rather than have my ship out in the stream, floating hither and thither with the tide.” “Professing Christians who keep their church letters in their trunks, or who wander from service to service, making of no place a sanctuary, and assuming no religious responsibilities,” says an exchange, “are in a fair way to come to grief, in social shallows or on the jagged reefs of temptation. If you do not want to drift into sin, tie up to some church.”
The Coming Jubilee
By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle
MRS. L. D. AVERY-STUTTLE
Look! methinks I see the tokens
Of the coming jubilee,
And methinks I hear a roaring
Like the voices of the sea,
Like the sound of many waters
When the mighty winds arise,
For the Lord of hosts is coming
With the army of the skies.
And he calleth to his people,
And his tones are soft and mild,—
Soft as when a mother speaketh
To her well-beloved child:—
“Come, my people, seek thy chambers,
Cover thee and shut thy door
Till the indignation passeth,
Till the fury shall be o’er.
Hide thee for one little moment;
For the sword is bending low,
And the mighty God of battles
Taketh vengeance on the foe.
“Hide thee, hide thee in thy chambers,
Hide thee in the clefted rock,
From the field of Armageddon,
From the battle and the shock.
Fear thee not, O seed of Jacob!
Fear thee not, nor be dismayed;
I am with thee every moment,
Thou shalt never be afraid.
“Though a thousand fall around thee;
And ten thousand at thy side,
Like the myriad leaves of autumn
O’er the meadows far and wide;
Though the trembling earth be gory,
And no more shall hide her slain,
And the heavens are black as sackcloth,
Still my promise shall remain.”
Yes; the hour of triumph hasteth,
And the day of jubilee;
Look! the martyred saints assemble
From the desert and the sea,
And ten thousand thousand voices
Shout and sing with one accord:
“’Tis our God, we’ve waited for him!
Halleluiah! ’tis the Lord!”
Lansing, Mich.
The First Conference in Austria
By Ludwig Richard Conradi
L. R. CONRADI
Of all the larger European states where the threefold message has taken root, Austria-Hungary, with its 52,000,000 inhabitants, was the last to be permanently entered. Providence first led to Hungary, where the laws are more lenient, and here we have now two organized conferences and three mission fields, with over a thousand members, forming the principal part of the Danube Union. Austria, with its 20,000,000 people, formed part of the two unions. Galicia and Bukowina, being almost entirely separated from the main portion and lying close to the East German Union, had been joined to this union, forming two mission fields and containing 50 members. The main portion of Austria, with about 20,000,000 people, belongs to the Central European Union, and has been divided into three mission fields, the Austrian, Bohemian, and the Moravian-Silesian. About eight different languages are spoken in this territory.
The Austrian field had its annual conference at Vienna, from September 3-7. Elder A. G. Daniells, of the General Conference, Elder G. W. Schubert, the union president, Brother Boex, the general agent, and the writer attended this meeting. Brethren Bischof and Werner were ordained to the ministry. The Austrian field had, at the beginning of the third quarter, 442 members. It has an excellent tithe, and the donations come up to ten cents a week. Elder Wolfgarten was again put in charge of the field.
From here Elder Daniells went to Scandinavia. On the seventh Elder Schubert and the writer reached Reichenberg, where the Bohemian meeting had begun the day previous. Most of the 180 members of this field were present, and when I spoke on Africa the first night the hall, which holds over 500 people, was crowded to overflowing. Though the majority of the 7,000,000 people in this field speak the Bohemian language, our work has thus far prospered the best in the German-speaking portion. Brother F. Gruber was again elected superintendent of this mission.
A twelve hours' run on the cars brought us to Teschen in Silesia, where the Moravian-Silesian conference was held from September 11-14. Brother Wolfgarten also rendered assistance here. Of the three fields, this has prospered the most numerically. Last year over 100 souls were added. Three languages are spoken, the Moravian, akin to the Bohemian, the Polish, and the German. Of the 335 members, not less than 300 live in Silesia, which province has only about 800 people; the rest live in Moravia, which portion has 2,700,000 people. As a good many of our people were Polish, both the conference sessions and the public work had to be carried on in German and Polish. Our hall was so crowded by our own people, who had nearly all turned out, that we could not invite outsiders. In view of the fact that this field has already over 300 members, and is entirely self-supporting, it was unanimously decided to organize it into a conference. Elder J. Muth, who has so faithfully looked after its interests, was elected president, while Brother P. Niedoba, who had been instrumental in building up the Polish work, was ordained to the ministry. In all these fields wonderful experiences were told of God's providences in opening up the way and overruling difficulties.
It is truly wonderful that in so short a time the Lord has given us some 800 souls in Austria, most of whom have come out from the Roman Catholic Church. Had we full liberty, undoubtedly we should see greater growth. Our canvassing work seemed at first almost an impossibility. A number of our workers had been imprisoned, but still they press on, and the Lord shows them new ways and gives them favor with the people. As the native workers increase, there is surely every hope that in a little while there will be a strong work in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Let us remember both workers and people in our prayers.
Selukwe Mission
By W. C. Walston
W. C. WALSTON
THE friends who so liberally donated funds for the Selukwe Mission will be pleased to learn how this money has been expended. I can assure you that we here in Africa very much appreciate your liberality for the work in this country.
When we learned there were sufficient funds sent to purchase a farm for a permanent mission site on the Selukwe Reserve, Brother T. J. Gibson was instructed to look for a suitable farm. The Rhodesian government will lease only about one hundred acres to our missionaries on the native reserves, so we are somewhat limited in making our mission stations what we should like them to be.
Brother Gibson spent several weeks looking for a farm, traveling several hundred miles on foot with only one or two native boys as companions. After looking over the country in that section and visiting all the farms for sale that he could hear of, he reported to the conference committee, and I was asked to go and assist him in selecting one.
Among these farms was one owned by a lawyer living at Victoria. The place pleased Brother Gibson, and he obtained an option for two months. As soon as I could arrange to leave, I went to Selukwe, and was met at the station by Brother Gibson, with cart, four mules, and native driver, and we were soon on our way to the Victoria districts where these farms were situated. We spent eight days visiting the different farms, and decided that the farm owned by Mr. Herman, the lawyer at Victoria, would be a very suitable site for our new mission.
We asked for an extension of the option for a few weeks in order to place the matter before the conference committee for its approval, but Mr. Herman refused this request, telling us that he had been offered considerably more for14the farm by two or three parties since he gave the option. We had but three days to decide whether or not we should purchase the property, and immediately wired for instructions. The reply came to purchase, and we closed the bargain at once.
I am glad to tell you we own a farm for our new mission (and that, too, without an interest-bearing debt, as the money was raised beforehand), situated about ten miles south of Victoria, among the hills and mountains, in a fine basin or valley, nearly a mile across, and the soil is some of the best I have seen in this country. Several hundred acres will be ready for the plow with very little clearing.
The farm contains eighteen hundred acres, and is adapted to all kinds of grain and fruit grown in this country, and already has about two hundred fruit-trees; it is well watered and well suited to grazing. There is a good road from Victoria to the mission farm, and we expect the new railway line will reach Victoria in twelve months.
In our opinion this has been a providential opening for us to purchase the property, and we praise God for his guiding hand.
There are over thirty native reserves south of the place, where the message has never been carried, and we hope from this mission to be able to send out workers after they have been trained, to teach the truth to these souls in heathen darkness.
Victoria is about sixty miles east of Selukwe Mission. The cost of the farm, including the transfer, etc., was about £600. There will be sufficient funds to purchase stock and tools, so the mission will be well furnished to start with. The owner of the farm has some good cattle on the place, which he offers to us at a reasonable price. So everything will be ready for a good beginning at once. We have decided to name the new mission Glendale. Probably Brother Gibson and his family are now moving on to the place.
Good News From Peru
IN a letter dated September 5, Brother O. H. Maxson, of Lima, Peru, tells of the spirit of liberty obtaining a little more of a foothold in that country. An act has just been passed by the legislature changing a clause of the church-and-state constitution that in the past has bound the people to Rome. He says:—
“Before going on into the letter, I must tell you some good news which we hope is to be for the good of the work here in Peru. You very likely know Peru’s constitution does not permit any religion but the Catholic. We learned only three days ago that a bill has been presented to cut off the last clause of Article IV, which says, “And permits no other [religion].” The article will read as follows, “The state professes the Roman Catholic religion and protects it.” There is no change, but the leaving off of the last clause. This we are hoping to see go through without much opposition, but we are making arrangements to circulate petitions in all parts of the republic as far as we can reach out by writing to those whom we know to be in sympathy with religious freedom. There has been a great deal in the papers of late about the abuses that our brethren have suffered from the bishop of Puno. I am translating some for Liberty, which I hope to have ready soon. One paper has devoted a great deal of space to this matter, and I am sure will speak in no uncertain terms when once the above bill is debated. Pray for us.”
Just recently in a telegraphic report in the daily press we learn that this measure passed the Peruvian senate with only four dissenting votes.
Inland New Guinea
By L. W. CARR
L. W. CARR
SUNDAY, June 22, saw a string of carriers—men and women—leaving Bisiatabu followed by Brother Lawson and me. The ten loads contained bedding, tent, loin-cloths, a few knives, billycans, kerosene, medicine, salt and beads with which to pay carriers and purchase food, and sufficient European tinned food to last a month when used sparingly with the native vegetables and fruits. We were bound for inland New Guinea to visit the tribes that had been previously reached, and to come in touch with others.
For the first week it rained each afternoon, but the rest of the journey was agreeably fine. The traveling was all on foot along native tracks, and was mostly strenuous, with but few miles of level country. On an average we climbed four thousand feet each day, and the descent was sometimes more difficult than the ascent.
Altogether fourteen tribes were visited, seven of them for the first time by any missionary. The Owen Stanley Range was crossed, and Kokoda, the government station one hundred and ten miles from Port Moresby, was reached. Breakfast at seven thousand feet, the highest point reached, was enjoyed one morning round a good fire, the wind being cold.
Two of the mission boys, themselves inland lads, accompanied us the whole trip, acting as interpreters, and they were benefited by the experience. At the same time we were able to compile a rough dictionary of several hundred words of their language, which we found different from the one spoken near Bisiatabu and less similar to the Port Moresby language.
The tribes were generally about a day's journey apart, and carriers would take us to the next tribe only, for each received two strings of beads (one hundred), valued at sixpence, and a dessert-spoonful of salt. Papuans can eat salt as European children eat sugar. On the home journey, carriers who had come with us for one day found the next tribe absent from the village, so they promptly left the loads and deserted us. Having four boys with us on the way to Bisiatabu, we were able to carry the things most needed, leaving the rest to follow a week or two later.
Christ and him crucified and the necessity of preparing to meet a soon-coming Saviour were the themes mostly dwelt upon at every village; and services were held at the roadside, by the mountain torrent, or in the garden, or wherever hearers could be found, and the old, old story became sweeter to the narrators each time it was repeated.
Good attention on the whole was paid to the message delivered, although at first some of the women ran into the bush. One old man especially encouraged us. He was one of the Boura tribe, whose village had recently been burned, and whose pigs were shot by the police because of a case of sorcery resulting in the death of a man. During the first service he called out, “By and by we will know about Jesus and his ways.” At the next meeting he exclaimed, “We will soon know about Jesus and his ways,” but the next morning at worship he said, “Now we know Jesus and his ways.”
It was also encouraging to find that some of the inland boys who had previously been at Bisiatabu working for a year were exerting a good influence over their fellows, and we found quite a number of the Efogi and Kagi tribes who were keeping Sabbath as far as they knew how, which of course was far from perfect, yet a good advance step.
Our return to Bisiatabu, where all were found well, was accomplished without mishap, Ps. 121:8 thus proving true once again.
The Lord Jesus Is With You
By Frances Ridley Havergal
ARE you a disciple of the Lord Jesus? If so, he says to you, “I am with you alway.” That overflows all the regrets of the past and all the possibilities of the future, and most certainly includes the present. Therefore, at this very moment, as surely as our eyes rest on this page, so surely is the Lord Jesus with you. “I am” is neither “I was” nor “I will be.” It is always abreast of our lives, always encompassing us with salvation. It is a splendid, perpetual “now.”—Frances Ridley Havergal.
The Christ-Life as the Standard
By J. T. Sunderland
THE great tendency among men everywhere is to follow the standards and ideals that are dominant in the particular society in which they happen to move. It is a great thing to have a standard that overtops my little circle and yours; that can be seen from community to community, from nation to nation, from age to age. Such a standard has the Christ-life come to be.—J. T. Sunderland.
Refined Through Trial
By F. W. Robinson
As the tree is fertilized by its own broken branches and falling leaves, and grows out of its own decay, so men and nations are bettered and improved by trial, and refined out of broken hopes and blighted expectations.—F. W. Robinson.
The Christian’s Hope
By Pearl Waggoner
· PEARL WAGGONER
LET me have the Christian’s hope!
You may call it dark and gloomy if
you choose;
But I should not think to change it,
Nor for wealth of earth exchange it;
Not for worlds could I this hope afford to lose.
Let me have the Christian’s hope!
Earth-born hopes or dreams can ne’er
with it compare;
Earthly joys, or wealth, or pleasures,
All its dearest, most-sought treasures,
Ne’er can vie with those which wait
me over there.
Let me have the Christian’s hope!
Never will it cause a disappointing
tear;
For its glorious consummation
Will exceed anticipation,
With my loved ones and my Saviour
ever near,
Let me have the Christian’s hope
Of that home where fear of loss ne’er
makes afraid;
Where no grief the heart shall sadden;
Where the stream of life shall gladden,
And shall heal the wounds that sin
and pain have made.
Let me have the Christian’s hope!
Then what matters it what else below
I miss?
I am rich, with heaven o’er me;
Pure delights are just before me,
In its fields of unalloyed, eternal bliss.
Hinsdale, Ill.
Fiendish Devices of White-Slavers
Warning to All Women
That young girls and women need to be constantly on the alert as to the devices of agents of the white slave traffic has been brought to our attention in two marked instances recently. A mother and her daughter went from Jersey City to New York City on a shopping tour. To economize time they separated, agreeing to meet in an hour and a half in Macy's parlor. The daughter finished her errands first, and having time to spare, was looking into the window of a store near by. As the crowd gathered around her, she felt a sharp pin prick her arm, but paid no attention to it except to rub the spot. She then went to Macy's as agreed, to wait for her mother, but as soon as she had taken her seat, fell to the floor in a swoon.
The matron was called, and the doctor of the establishment was summoned. After looking at the girl, he said, “O, it's only a case of drunk! We will take her to the window, and the air will revive her.” At this juncture, a well-dressed man came hurrying up as if looking for some one, and seeing the unconscious girl lying there, said to the matron, “This is my wife; she has these drinking spells occasionally. I have a carriage at the door and will take her home.”
Providentially, the mother, who had been searching for her daughter, pushed her way through the group, and, seeing the man about to take her daughter away, sprang forward, saying, “This is my daughter. What are you doing?” In the excitement of the moment the man fled, and could not be found.
Another instance is of a young woman living in Newark, N. J., who went to New York City recently, and after attending to her business stepped into a moving-picture place in the shopping center. After a few minutes, the girl felt a sharp pin-prick in the side of her neck. She looked around and saw a man and woman of ordinary appearance, sitting behind her intent upon the pictures being exhibited. She felt dizzy, so made her way out of the place, and seeing a policeman near by, went to him and asked him to take care of her. She was taken to the station-house near by the officer, and the sergeant in charge, as soon as she was brought before him, recognized the symptoms, saying, “It is another of those knock-out cases.” In both these instances these girls had been punctured with a hypodermic needle containing some strong opiate, and had not Providence mercifully interposed, both without doubt would have been counted among the numerous cases of young women who mysteriously disappear, and are forced into slavery as inmates of houses of prostitution.—Union Signal.
The Noon-Hour Prayer
“Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.” “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends.”
“PRAYER has divided seas, rolled up flowing rivers, made flinty rocks gush into fountains, quenched flames of fire, muzzled lions, disarmed vipers and poisons, stopped the course of the moon, arrested the sun in its rapid race, burst open iron gates, conquered the strongest devils, commanded legions of angels down from heaven. Prayer has bridled and chained the raging passions of man, and routed and destroyed vast armies of proud, daring, blustering atheists. Prayer has brought one man from the bottom of the sea, and carried another in a chariot of fire to heaven.”
Requests for Prayer
301. A New York sister desires prayer for her husband, who is an infidel, and for her father and brothers, who are addicted to the use of strong drink.
302. A sister writing from Colorado asks prayer for healing from a skin disease.
303. From Louisiana an anxious wife sends the request for our prayers in behalf of her husband, who is a drinking man.
304. An Idaho sister asks prayer for healing.
305. “Please pray that my hearing may be restored, if it is God's will,” writes an aged Ohio sister.
306. Another sister in the same State (Ohio) begs us to pray that she may be healed.
307. A brother asks prayer for a friend in Michigan who must undergo a severe operation unless it is God's will to restore her.
A Sennacherib Inscription
Yet another piece of valuable testimony. There has lately been added to the British Museum an Assyrian inscription relating to Sennacherib. The Bible states that after his return (how long is not stated) from his invasion of the land of Israel, “it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.” 2 Kings 19:37. For long that record stood alone, with no other known reference to it in history; but the famous coronation inscription of Nabonidus, B. C. 555, which gives a summary of the chief events in the history of the New Babylonian Empire, records this event, and says of Sennacherib: “That king of Assyria, who, by the anger of Merodach, had accomplished the destruction of the land, the son, the offspring of his body, with the sword pierced him.” Another inscription gives the date when the murder occurred: “On the 20th day of the month Tebet, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, his son slew him in a rebellion.” The same inscription tells that the rebellion lasted from the day of the murder until the twenty-eighth day of Sivan of the next year, “when Esarhaddon, his son, sat on the throne of Assyria.” That two were privy to this murder seems clear from the inscription, for Esarhaddon tells us that he had to fight against his two brothers. The Assyrian inscription now added to the museum carries the testimony a little farther, for it relates to the place where the murder took place. The Bible expressly says, “In the house of Nisroch his god.” The newly acquired cylinder has been dug up from the foundation of the great gate of the wall of the city, and it reads: “To Nergal, his lord, king of Assyria, a palace shrine which is within the city of Tarbizi, from foundation to roofs he built and completed.” “The flight of the murderers into Armenia is confirmed by the recording Esarhaddon, who defeated them in a battle on the Armenian frontier.”—Bible Standard.
EVA M. DAVIS
By Eva M. Davis
Thanksgiving
EVA M. DAVIS
The year is crowned with blessings rare;
Its fruit and grains in beauty fair
Attest Jehovah’s love and care.
Like leaves of autumn, brown and sere,
It stands without regret or fear,
The dear, old, fading, dying year.
Beside our path it laid a gem
Of friendship true, a diadem
Like that which shone o’er Bethlehem.
It scattered flowers of peace and trust,
Whose fragrance rising from the dust
Led us to him whose ways are just.
It gave a grace to Sorrow’s form,
It comfort spoke to hearts forlorn,
It bade us wait the coming morn.
And when we walked o’er rugged ways
With fainting steps, beneath the rays
Of blazing sun, the weary days
Were filled with quietness and peace.
To many souls it spoke release;
To some it gave a rich increase
Of joy and boundless happiness;
It taught the way to cheer and bless.
In mem’ry of its faithfulness
Our hearts take up the joyous song
Of praise from many a raptured throng
Who still the sound of praise prolong.
For joy and sorrow, peace and pain,
For toil and rest, for loss and gain,
We humbly thank thee, Lord, again.
For all we from thy love receive
We learn the better how to live.
We pray thee teach us thanks to give.