Was there any time lost when the sun stood still for Joshua? A READER.
No; there was more time made. The day was made longer, that is all; but it is called a day just the same; for it is said that there was "no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord harkened unto the voice of man." Joshua 10:13, 14. God in His mercy and might could control to His glory the sun and moon, the laws of which were already perverted by sin.
1684.—Eternity of Law.
Please explain Rom. 5:13, "For until the law, sin was in the world."
The statement means simply this: "For until the law [was spoken and written] sin was in the world." It can not mean that law did not exist; for immediately it is declared, "But sin is not imputed when there is no law." Therefore as sin was in the world from the time Adam yielded to the tempter, the law was also in the world, tho not in a written form. Men had so far lost a sense of sin from their hearts, and the consciousness that God gave His law, in order "that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." Rom. 7:13.
1685.—Judas Iscariot and the Lord's Supper.
Did Judas Iscariot leave Christ and the eleven disciples during or after the eating of the Passover Supper? Which took place first, feet-washing or the breaking of bread? A. S.
After the eating of the Passover Supper. Send to the Review and Herald, 222 North Capitol Street, Washington, D. C., and obtain "The Rejected Ordinance." The order was this: (1) The entire bath before the Passover, which John 13 shows the disciples to have taken before they came to the washing of feet. (2) The Passover Supper. (3) The strife at the table as to who should be greatest. (4) The ordinance of humility and feet-washing. (5) The Lord's Supper. Judas seems to have been with our Lord and His disciples through all. The tract above mentioned makes this clear. See also "The Desire of Ages" on this subject. We have not the space for the argument in this column.
1686.—Powers of Heaven.
What are the "powers of heaven" that are to be shaken just before Christ comes? Has that shaking begun? If so, when did it begin? Did Christ mean that He would come in the generation that saw these "powers" shaking? How long is a generation? O. A.
The sun, the moon, the sidereal heavens. The signs referred to in the same connection were literal, so also will be the shaking referred to. When God came down upon Mount Sinai and spoke His law, His voice shook the earth. Under the seventh plague, at the second coming of Christ, God will speak again, and then both heaven and earth will shake. Heb. 12:26; Rev. 16:17, 18; Joel 3:16.
As to the sending of your children where the truth is not taught, certainly it would not be best for them. While it might not be a wrong worship, it might confirm the children in error, and so lead to false worship.
1687.—"In the Heart of the Earth."
You made the statement in the SIGNS, of February 8, that the Bible does not say that Christ was in the grave three days and nights. How do you explain, then, Matt. 12:39, 40? M. M.
Matt. 12:39, 40 does not say that Christ was in the grave three days and three nights. Many believe that "the heart of the earth" means in the power of the Roman Government. Could we prove that it does not? This would make that period begin at the time of Christ's betrayal. See Luke 22:53; John 12:27.
“RELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.”
By Bryn Mawr
By Bryn Mawr.
A FAIR and comprehensive consideration of the subject of religious teaching in the public schools presents many objectionable features to the practise. And these features are peculiarly live issues in this hour of the world’s history; because we are nearing the time of prophetic denouement which is to make possible religious persecution in this alleged enlightened age. Indeed God’s true church is fast nearing the time and experience foreshadowed in John 16:2, 3.
These issues must be squarely and practically met by every true lover of true liberty. The unwisdom of placing within the curriculum of public instruction, any expurgated scriptures formulating a system of compulsory or indiscriminate religious training is self-evident. Yet many thousands of alleged lovers of boasted American liberties contend for and laud every effort to foist this, willy-nilly, upon an heterogenous public, representing a symposium of religious and non-religious thought as varied and incongruous as it is possible to be.
Even tho all so-called Protestant religious organizations should, conjointly with the Roman Catholic organization, adopt a categorical and stereotyped system of religious instruction, they must of necessity,—in this union of incompatible religious forces,—bow to the dictation of the papal church, or else precipitate a wider and more pronounced strife than has heretofore existed between these representative organizations. However, these incompatibilities are fast disappearing; and pseudo-Protestantism will yield, until every semblance of schismatic differences are removed, and the daughter has become so like the original, or “mother,” that the family resemblance and relation is patent to all students of God’s Word. And this nation, dominated by this perverted Protestantism forms an “image” to the “beast,” the Rome of the Dark Ages.
For many years there has been great antagonism toward our public-school system by the Catholic clergy, manifesting itself in the withdrawal of thousands of Catholic children from the public schools, and the establishment of numerous parochial schools in which the children of “orthodox” Catholics are educated. There was also a correspondingly energetic effort on the part of the general Catholic organization to divert a part of the public funds to the support of these schools. A self-evident injustice to the general, or representative, taxpayer. This point also will be yielded as the papal leaven continues to work.
Apropos of this point, note the weakening of the government in its attitude on the Catholic Indian School appropriations. Failing to withdraw all the Catholic children from the public schools, the papal hierarchy with well-known subtility and political power, conceived and executed the plan of at least “coloring” public thought with papal and pagan teaching and dogmas by subversive methods; and as a result, to-day the curriculum of the public schools of America presents with its proper teaching a curious conglomeration of pagan legendary and philosophy, and papal dogma and superstition. Out of the public funds is supported a great army of good, bad, and indifferent public instructors the majority of whom are communicants of the Roman Church; that is to say, they would seek the consolations of the “mother church” (Rev. 17:5) in the hour of death. Surely the world, aye, and the church also, have reason to “admire the beast” with a wide-eyed, wondering admiration. Rev. 13:3; 17:6.
Because of these conditions, a considerable class who love God, and accept His Word as the rule of faith in all things, are constrained to establish denominational schools supported by private subscription. At these schools religious instruction consonant with the true Gospel of Christ is taught, and this without defrauding the public treasury, as they, in common with their fellow citizens “render unto Caesar” his rightful tribute.
As a public educational institution without any form of religious instruction, the nominal Christian or agnostic, Jew or Gentile, pagan or Mohammedan, men of every creed, or no creed at all, every shade of belief or no belief at all, may meet on common ground, in common civic fellowship; but the moment the element of religion,—always sectarian, and not possibly otherwise as long as there is more than one sect on earth,—is introduced, then strife, contention, and open rupture between erstwhile friends and associates are sure to follow. Let this movement, started at our nation’s capital, once be established as a criterion of educational methods, and an exodus of adherents of irreconcilable “issues” from our public schools must supervene.
Then will follow the establishment of schools for the “classes;” for class lines will become more strongly marked and more easily discerned than is possible under existing conditions of society.
No follower of the “Golden Rule” can possibly invade the realm of individual consciences. This ground belongs alone to God and the individual! And this is as true of the most incorrigible infidel as of the most devout Christian. No self-respecting person, alive to the evil bound to result from the least coercion of human conscience, can afford to yield his rights of religious liberty. He will earnestly protest against any curtailment of constitutional rights.
Again, compulsory religious training, upon the children of those who are indifferent in their selection of religious belief, and who only conform to public pressure because of this indifference, will only result in cheapening variety of the religion taught, as it will of necessity invite comparison with the existing public-school literature, so at variance with the teachings of pure Christianity, the only basis of which is the eternal character of Jehovah, as disclosed in the “Decalogue.” Yet it is that code now perverted with all the man-made apostolic mutilations and blasphemous additions that misguided men are seeking to force upon the public to gratify the ambitions of a bureau of modern conscience arbiters. Truly the “old Inquisition” is near to be rehabilitated.
How can an unconverted and unconsecrated person as teacher take up any system of religious teaching and make it effective? Or how can a converted and devoted Christian as teacher reclaim a child whose home environments are, in part or wholly, antagonistic to every principle of reform? Indeed it is a fact easily demonstrated that the few hours daily drilling in the literature of the public institution of education, together with the indiscriminate associations of these schools, have, in many cases, a demoralizing effect tending to nullify the best influence of a Christian home.
It is the purpose of denominational church schools to make a valuable auxiliary to the consecrated effort of the home, the church, and the Sabbath-school; that the spiritual influence of these God-given institutions might not be made void by the growing antagonism to the Bible so often manifest in the public school.
Even more dangerous than these are the higher institutions of learning, because of the subtleties and sophistries of their systems of philosophy which are now bearing fruit in the effort to arouse a public sentiment favorable to religious instruction in the public schools. This is a primary entering wedge, ultimately in the complete union of church and state in the near future.
And so the battle goes on. The teachers in every system, high and low—directors and leaders of public opinion, of elastic conscience, or thrifty adaptation to irreconcilable conditions—are seemingly without conception of fidelity to a fixed principle of truth. Matt. 6:24. Rome gains a little here and there with every move. Her opponents little by little conform to her dictum, ever retire as she advances and the whole lump will soon be leavened, becoming a gigantic system of error filling the whole earth, at whose shrine all the world worships, except the “little flock,” who are “faithful even unto death.”
Stanley, N. D.
THE CORRUPTED PRESS.
By Editor
THE great daily papers of the country pose as representatives of the people, but they are not. They are, like every other element in this world, instrumentalities for getting money and influence. In their haste for money they give volumes of matter that is neither news nor profitable instruction in any line. The news is garbled and perverted and exaggerated every day. Often it is sheer sensationalism.
The plea is that the people want it so; and, judging from the financial success of these institutions from popular patronage, the plea has some foundation. But the appetite had to be created first, and once created, it is hard to satiate. It is this perverted appetite that makes people tolerate—we dislike to say appreciate—the lowering of the one-time dignified editorial page to the level of the comic almanac. But the deliberate falsifying of facts in the interest of great corporations, that is so conspicuous in some of the boasted moulders of public opinion, is surely a sign and a cause of moral degeneracy in the world.
A case in point is that of Mr. Dalrymple, of Glasgow, Scotland, who was brought to Chicago by Mayor Dunn to give expert counsel in the matter of municipal operation of street cars. The corporation-owned journals in various cities have persistently represented Mr. Dalrymple as saying that while municipal ownership is a great success in Scotland,7it is impracticable in American cities. Notwithstanding his disclaimers of such utterances, and repetitions of his true sentiments, he deplores the fact that prominent influential journals continue to misconstrue his statements.
WHAT MAY WE EXPECT.
WE are told, constantly told, that the world is getting better; that the warning alarms which are raised are utterly uncalled for; that the world is rapidly progressing to that time which Tennyson predicted when
"the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle flags were furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.
"There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in
awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law."
But out of what is this condition to come? What is there in the present which bodes the birth of such a time? We grant that there is a good time coming; but how can it be evolved out of present conditions? Like begets like. Sin will not, can not, beget righteousness.
True, we have passed out of much that is coarse and ugly and rough in the civilization of the past, but is there less of evil and sin? Is there not less of conscience, less of the keen sense of right, less of integrity, less of a sense of responsibility to God, less of faith in the eternal verities? We do not know how, in the light of the overwhelming revelations of wickedness, fraud, trickery, debauchery, in high places, an intelligent person can come to any other conclusion; they must see that the times are perilous, and the world is rapidly drifting on to ruin.
Simply to refer to a few instances: Take Bailey Millard's article in the May Everybody's on "The West Coast Land Grafters," in which he shows that many of the great holders of land in the west have obtained it through fraud, perjury, and debauchery of governmental officers. Hundreds,—Christians among them, Christians even who profess the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,—have perjured their souls for a few paltry dollars to help the great land sharks. They have sworn that the bogus applications they have made for land were made in good faith, for the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation, and not for the benefit of any other person or corporation; that there was no collusion with any person to give him the benefit of the land; that no agreement must be entered into with any other person by which the title to the land applied for should inhere in part or in whole to any other person save the applicant.
Mr. Millard designated the conscience which permits men to so perjure themselves a "Land Conscience;" and he tells us further that, "Land Conscience is one of the most self-deceptive of human attributes." But before the great Bar of God there will be no such discrimination. The false oath will be a false oath, and the damning thing will have left its searing, distorting mark upon the character.
Mr. Millard tells us that to name the wealthy men who had been benefited by such means "would be a sort of roll-call of nearly all who have secured large holdings of fertile lands in Oregon and California."
And the late Federal Grand Jury in Oregon, by the time it had adjourned, "had uncovered such a mass of fraud, nearly all of recent occurrence, as to make honest hearts sicken, and its indictments had fallen on the lowest places and the highest," among whom was Senator Mitchell of Oregon. We are told that volumes could be written on the land frauds and steals, and grafts, and swindles, and grabs.
But the meat trust and the "System," the insurance companies, and a score of other big concerns, each seems to have its special brand of elastic, resilient, convenient conscience. We have the Hog Conscience, the Standard Oil Conscience, the Policy Conscience, the Steel Conscience, the Copper Conscience, and no one knows how many other brands which are unaffected by any sort of compromise of righteousness and integrity.
The tide of undermining evil is so strong that men like the Rev. Thomas B. Gregory, whom no one can call a pessimist or a radical reformer, are forced to admit it. He declares in the San Francisco Examiner of June 17:
"Not only in this country but in every other land within the pale of Christendom, the men and women who should be striving after truth and honesty are living the lives of dissemblers and hypocrites.
"Life is getting to be a great big masquerade in which each one is trying his or her best to deceive the others.
"Honesty, frankness, sincerity, the open-eyed Truth which looks at you without blinking, are becoming rarer than five-leaved clovers, and the recognized order of the day is to lie and deceive as persistently and as successfully as you can!
"Paint, pretense, bluff, bluster—in a word, lying and hypocrisy—have driven the old-fashioned truth and square dealing to the woods, and instead of the face-to-face and heart-to-heart way of living that once prevailed, we have the great game of 'Peek-a-boo,' in which no one knows whose voice he is listening to, or whose eyes are looking at him through the holes in the doughfaces."
The very condition of things noted above God has explicitly told in His Word, the most up-to-date book to-day. Read Isa. 59, a picture of this time. Read 2 Tim. 3:1-5, another vivid portrayal of the days of hypocrisy in which we live. Note that it mentions eighteen different sins, universally prevalent to-day; note that these sins are to be found among those professedly religious; and note also that because of these cherished sins in the church the times are perilous. Read:
"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away."
"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay."
Blind our minds as we will, America is following in the pathway of ancient Rome, and disintegration and ruin must inevitably follow the decadence of essential morality.
There is but one remedy, the old-fashioned Gospel of Jesus Christ. Repentance, forsaking of sin, separation from the world, self-denial, and obedience to God in faith and love—only in these is there salvation. God's call is to His "everlasting Gospel." Rev. 14:6, 7. The good time, the world of peace, lies beyond His second coming.
DISESTABLISHMENT IN FRANCE.
By Editor
THE following setting forth of what has been accomplished by recent legislation in France, we take from the British Weekly:
In the first words of the Bill [presented by M. Grunebaum-Ballin, Minister of Public Worship] the Republic guarantees liberty of conscience, with complete freedom of public worship. M. Briand reminds us that this marks a step onward in the path of Liberalism, for certain restrictions have hitherto hampered the work of all religious bodies. He also says that as disputes must inevitably arise in the working of the Act, the magistrates will understand from this declaratory clause placed at the head of it, that they must seek the solution most favorable to liberty of conscience and freedom of worship.
Next follows the vital section on which the whole Act depends—the declaration that the Republic neither recognizes, nor pays, nor supports any form of worship. All expenses connected with the exercise of public worship will disappear after January 1 from the budgets of the state and the communes. The Ministry of Public Worship will be suppressed. The state, as M. Grunebaum-Ballin remarks, will henceforth keep within its own sphere, which concerns the things of earth alone. "All that lies above or outside this earthly life, all things supernatural and divine, in other words the essential elements in every religion, in every worship, in every metaphysic, are beyond its ken. The state is not hostile or indifferent to these things; it knows nothing of them. Its kingdom is of this world and this world alone."
That appears to be a full and complete separation of church and state; but France is an overwhelmingly Catholic country, and it is certain that the separation of the Catholic Church from a state composed almost wholly of Catholics is not a Catholic ideal. Apparently a telling blow for genuine religious freedom has been struck in France; but they who know the policy of the Church of Rome know full well that she will never permit that condition of things to persist. It is not at all improbable that one day the head of that church will speak to the laity of France in every department; and when she does, that laity will respond and do her bidding.
THE NATIONS ARE PREPARING.
THE marvelous success of the Japanese army and navy in the war against Russia has set the military outlooks of the various nations studying and planning more anxiously than ever to devise ways and means for making their armies more efficient and rendering their fleets and fortifications more secure against attack and more impregnable in attack.
The latest naval battle, in which so large a portion of the Russian fleet was destroyed has brought to the attention of this government the fact that the Philippines are wholly unprotected, having no fortifications, and there being only a few warships of this country stationed at Manila. Even the obsolete guns of the Spanish fortifications have been removed and scattered among the larger cities of the United States. But the government has now become aroused to the unprotected condition of the Philippines, and a large sum will be spent in erecting fortifications there and providing the defenses with modern weapons of war. Another battleship also will be added to the squadron at Manila "to maintain the dignity of the United States and to more closely approach the naval strength of Japan."
The German Government has issued an order to fortify Kiaochou Bay, Germany's Chinese port. For a long time Germany has been contemplating the fortification of this, its only naval base in far eastern waters; but the means for so doing had not been in hand. Japan's victory there has by some mysterious magic caused the means to be speedily forthcoming, and now the fortifications with the necessary high-power guns will be provided as rapidly as the work can be accomplished. These activities in the far East have naturally aroused France, who has extensive interests in the far East, and she will soon begin the defenses of the coast-line of her eastern provinces. Whether England is planning to strengthen her Chinese base of Weihaiwei is not pointed out, but it is altogether probable that she will do so. Each additional fortification or war vessel or high-power gun of one nation calls for an equal increase by the other powers, and so they continue to "prepare war."
S.
Mutiny and Revolution in Russia
The Russian battleship, Kniaz Potemkine, was captured by a mutinous crew, on June 28, who killed eight of their officers and a number of the sailors who had not joined them. The red flag was raised over the vessel, and a few shells were thrown into the city of Odessa. A Russian squadron was hurried to the scene, and after a parley the mutinous crew surrendered the vessel without resistance. It is reported that the crews of some of the other vessels are also in a mutinous condition, but the censorship is so strict that the facts regarding the situation are not definitely known. Reports indicate that the entire waterfront has been burned by revolutionists, and a number of ships in the harbor have also been burned. While millions of dollars worth of property were going up in smoke a battle was raging between the populace and the troops. Some reports state that more than 1,400 have been killed in that city alone. Odessa is now under martial law, as are also the provinces of Sebastopol, Nicholaieff, and Erivan. There have been continuous disorders in Poland, Breziny, Borisoff, Lodz, and Libau. At the latter place a great strike has been declared, and many hundreds of sailors mutinied. A general strike of workmen in the various occupations is said to be an event that will soon take place. On the whole, the conditions in Russia seem ripe for a revolution. The people are becoming more and more exasperated as their comrades are being shot down in their parades, and it is even reported that some regiments have declared that they will not again fire upon the people.
Reconciliation Between Italy and Rome
Negotiations are now pending between Vatican authorities and Italian officials which indicate a complete scheme of reconciliation between the Italian Government and the See of Rome. These negotiations cover all points of difference between the two powers, and special details necessary to guarantee the pope's complete independence and support on the part of the Italian Government. They constitute the basis of a concordat soon to be agreed upon, which, if successfully conducted, will put an end to the long existing conflict over the question of temporal power. That will mean the restoration of such power in some measure, the first step in a significant movement.
