Dr. Keller gives a few pertinent suggestions concerning a serious malady that is affecting an increasing per cent of the people in the world to-day.
Heart disease is and always has been a serious malady. It takes many lives and cripples others, but of late years the general public has almost developed a cardiophobia. Dr. Richard Cabot of the Massachusetts General Hospital, tells us that the first and most important point of all is to know that most heart disease is imaginary. Those who think and fear that they have heart disease usually turn out, on careful examination, to be free from it. Nearly 10 per cent of Harvard’s freshmen in one class examined by Dr. Roger I. Lee and his assistants, believed themselves to have weak hearts. There is a group of symptoms in which the patient complains of difficult breathing, pain over the region of the heart, and rapid action of the heart, yet has a normal heart. “Often it is a patient who has fainted or been dizzy, and had some pain over the heart, and the physician may have heard a harmless murmur.”
MANY HEARTS NEED REPAIR
However, recent statistics compiled by the Census Bureau showed heart disease to be the greatest single cause of death, and apparently indicated that the death rate from this cause in the United States is increasing. The association for the prevention and relief of heart disease makes a statement showing that 2 per cent of the persons examined for life insurance are rejected because of serious heart defects, that 2 per cent of industrial workers are subject to similar defects, and that from 1½ per cent to 2 per cent of school children who are examined have serious heart lesions. We could conservatively say that about two million persons in the United States suffer of heart disease. It is quite evident that that question calls for serious attention on the part of the medical profession, and although some may feel that they have heart disease and have not, it is very advisable that good prevention be carried into effect. It is universally recognized that heart disease is preventable and amenable to relief.
At one time I, with one hundred or more doctors from all over the United States, had an opportunity to attend some clinics given by Dr. Cabot at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He drew attention to the fact that failing hearts can be assembled into four distinct groups. He spoke of those due to (1) rheumatism; (2) syphilis; (3) hardened arteries, or high blood pressure; (4) nephritis, or heart disease in some ways associated with disease of the kidney. We could usually tell what type of heart disease he was bringing before the group of doctors.
Rheumatism: The patient was usually a young girl about twenty-two years of age. There was a history of rheumatism, some focal infection of the tonsils; in some cases there was a history of St. Vitus’s dance; and usually some heart complication.
Syphilis: Usually a man of about twenty to forty years of age. The blood test for syphilis had been positive, and there was a special murmur over the region of what we call the aortic valve.
Dr. Keller gives a few pertinent suggestions concerning a serious malady that is affecting an increasing per cent of the people in the world to-day.
High Blood Pressure: These cases were usually elderly people about fifty to sixty years of age, with hardened arteries and angina pectoris, that is, pain over the region of the heart. The heart was enlarged, irregular, and sometimes rapid.
Nephritis: In the nephritic type of heart disease in which there is an involvement of the kidney, we usually found the average age of the patient was thirty-six. There was dimness in vision and anaemia.
Toxic: There is another type of heart disease that is due to toxic condition, such as enlarged thyroid, which can be used as an illustration.
DIAGNOSTIC HELP
The laboratory has been of material help in diagnosing the various heart lesions. (1) The Wassermann reaction for syphilis; (2) the kidney function test for functional activities of the kidney; (3) the blood pressure records in high blood pressure; (4) X ray of the chest, which gives the shape and size of the heart; (5) basal metabolic rate, which discloses goiter; (6) electrocardiogram for tracing of heart action.
Dr. Dublin, author of the book “Health and Wealth,” makes the statement: “No other disease in the entire field of medicine, with the possible exception of cancer, offers so large an opportunity for life-saving service.” At the very outset two lines of attack present themselves. The first affects the individual and reduces itself to one of personal hygiene; the second affects the community as a whole. Each has its proper place.
The campaign as it concerns the individual:
Children must be protected against infection.
Give adequate convalescent care to cases of tonsillitis and sore throat, which appear often to bring on rheumatic complications.
The prevention of cases of typhoid fever, diphtheria, and scarlet fever through specific inoculations.
Among young adults the reduction of syphilis.
Saner and more temperate living on the part of all, with due regard to rest and exercise.
Annual medical examinations. Many persons who have heart disease have discovered it in the most accidental and casual fashion.
(Continued on page 15)6
How to Avoid Heart Disease
(Continued from page 5)
The campaign as it concerns the community:
Improvement in medical instruction.
Attention of the public, particularly the parents, teachers, school children, etc., by propaganda and lectures.
Investigation into the incidence of St. Vitus’s dance.
Hospitals with special department for children with heart disease.
Schedule of suitable occupations for heart patients.
A central power for organization and research.
Treatment of focal infections.
The treatment includes the following:
Rest: Its importance can hardly be exaggerated. This is the universal verdict of all authorities.
Diet: Many authorities advise a low-protein diet, but one that is nourishing. In high blood pressure it means an alkaline ash diet (fruits and vegetables), avoiding animal protein.
Exercise: Systematic exercise, but not to fatigue or embarrassment of the heart.
Physiotherapy and hydrotherapy: Both of which are directed toward the improvement of the heart muscle.
Drugs: In some cases this is necessary to strengthen the heart muscle and to regulate the heart action.
The treatment of heart disease should always be under the direction of a physician.
For Severe Cases, Bed Is the Only Rightful Place
The importance of absolute rest in cases of heart disease cannot be emphasized too much. For severe cases bed is the only rightful place.
A WORLD STATE ADVOCATED
There is a deep-seated conviction today in the hearts of many people that the cure for the world’s disorder, dissension, strife, anarchy, and lawlessness would be the formation of a universal Christian empire. In their inmost souls men feel that the world will never be right and peace will never be secure until all the peoples and nations of the world are united under the sway of a Christian world state.
This was the dominant idea back of the sway of the Holy Roman Empire over Western Europe during the Middle Ages. This alliance between the princes and rulers of Western Europe and “the leader of Roman Christendom in the West,” was one of the most eventful coalitions in the history of Europe. It was the event upon which all medieval history turned. . . . For centuries, it affected every institution in Western Europe.”
A WORLD STATE ADVOCATED
Since the downfall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, many men have felt the necessity for a world state in Europe. “There must be,” said Napoleon, “one code, one court of appeal, and one coinage for Europe; the states of Europe must be united into one nation.” The pressure has only grown with the passage of the years. “The federation of Europe,” said Lord Salisbury shortly before he died, “is the embryo of the only possible structure of Europe which can save civilization.”
Prophecy makes it plain that just prior to the end, the world will be captivated by the grand and inspiring idea of a universal Christian empire. This idea will come to a head in the formation of that last-hour religio-political world confederacy, as predicted in Revelation 13 and 17. As the formation of the Holy Roman Empire was the pivot upon which all medieval history turned, so the formation of this coming religio-political confederacy will be the pivot upon which will turn the fast-moving events that mark the end of human history, and the introduction by the coming of Jesus Christ of the millennial age of Revelation 20. It will be the most eventful coalition of all history. It will be the marvel of marvels,—the superwonder of history. Thus prophecy declares that the whole world will wonder after it. Revelation 13:3; 17:8.
Twenty-seven hundred years ago Isaiah, in holy vision, declared that “in the latter days,” “the mountain of Jehovah’s house” shall be “established on the top of the mountains,” “and all nations shall flow unto it.” Isaiah 2:2, A. R. V.
The term “mountain” is used in prophecy to symbolize some form of government or seat of government. In Jeremiah 51:25 ancient Babylon is called a destroying mountain. The city of Jerusalem is called God’s “holy mountain.” Daniel 9:16.
A WORLD RELIGION PRE-EMINENT
The largest coast defense gun in the United States, located at Aberdeen, Maryland. With a charge of 702 pounds, this gun can fire a 2,100-pound projectile to a range of about thirty miles at a rate of approximately one round a minute.
“The house of the Lord,” or “Jehovah’s house,” plainly refers to the church. Therefore, this prophecy that “the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established at the head of the mountains” (Isaiah 2:1, A. R. V., margin) is a forecast of a time when the government and laws of the church shall be recognized as superior to all earthly governments, large and small, mountains and hills.
Prophecy indicates that the time is soon coming when a world religion will mount the saddle of a world state. The professed church will be placed on the highest pinnacle of fame and popularity. The church will receive her support, defense, and strength from the governments of earth.
When religious forms become popular under the sanction and support of civil authority, the result is just what the prophecy asserts,—“All nations shall flow unto it.” Under the strong arm of the law the people will flow (down grade, of course) into the church. Any union of the church and state is an illicit union, and that means corruption at work beforehand, and worse corruption afterwards.
A RELIGIO-POLITICAL CONFEDERACY
We have already entered the era forecast in the prophecy. Note how popular the churches are with the world. Mark how the superficial form of godliness—the mere acceptance of church forms, or outward profession—passes for Christianity. See how the churches are seeking to ally themselves with the civil power.
The church is no longer a despised little sect ignored by the world; it has become a dominant force in world affairs, “established” among the nations, wielding a controlling and growing influence. It is “exalted” in politics, business, society, through the press and onSeventhe public platform. Nominal Christianity is coming to the exalted position of world leadership, prepared to do its part in the final drama, as pictured in prophecy.
Notice now in the prophecy how this new hope in coming days—the hope of a world state with a world religion, with Jerusalem the capital of the world—will captivate “many people.” “Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, . . . for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Isaiah 2:3. The law of the Lord as interpreted and enforced by this world religion will be the constitution of the world.
Please observe again what these “many people” say about further war after thus establishing this religio-political world confederacy. “He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Isaiah 2:4.
The nations will be dazzled with the idea that they will surely reform themselves by religion. World councils of nations and religions will decree the destruction of the implements of war and the outlawing of war forever as the greatest boon of mankind. This will be man’s supreme effort to bring about the conversion of the world, the establishment of universal, lasting peace, and the making of Christ this world’s king.
But the agreement to disarm, and the plan thus to win the world for Christ, is as far as they will ever get, because they are impotent to put these desires into practice. They will be captivated by this most pleasing dream—but a dream is all it will ever be, it will never see materialization. Thus scripture speaks, “It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against Mount Zion.” Isaiah 29:8.
A LITERAL RETURN OF JESUS
While the Bible prophecies plainly and unequivocally teach that the second coming of Christ will be a literal, personal, visible, and universal appearing for the purpose of gathering the righteous to heaven and destroying the wicked, many religionists have attempted to spiritualize these prophecies, and have led many to expect a spiritual coming of Jesus to Jerusalem, to be crowned king, and usher in an era of world peace and righteousness. They will urge the establishment of this religio-political confederacy with its world capital at Jerusalem, believing that God has ordained such a movement, and that in this way the Lord Jesus is to establish His kingdom at Jerusalem, in this present world, and usher in the golden age. But in reality it will be Satan’s last effort under this present order to establish his empire over all the world.
While the Bible plainly declares that the Jewish nation will not be restored in Palestine (Jeremiah 19:1, 10, 11; Ezekiel 16:53-55; 21:25-27), nevertheless the sentiment among many Christians for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine has become an obsession. The idea prevails to a large extent that the Hebrew race will have to be rehabilitated in their ancient homeland before the millennium of peace can come to the earth.
The new meeting place of the League of Nations, the Palais Electoral at Geneva, Switzerland. No matter how hard the nations try to secure peace and safety at any cost, the venture is a futile one. The most promising arrangements always meet a tragic dénouement.
In democracy the voice of the people is the voice of the state, but in the field of religious truth the voice of the people is not the voice of God. He is not the one who calls the nations to this movement. No human federation, Christian or non-Christian, can save the world. Man cannot establish the millennium in this world. The greatest plan he will ever devise for the world’s salvation will only hasten its destruction.
WORLD CONFEDERACY AN APOSTASY
This last-hour world confederacy at the close of the career of Babylon will be a repetition on a larger scale of that confederacy against God under the leadership of Nimrod at the beginning of the career of Babylon. (Genesis 10:8-10; 11:1-9.) That confederacy at Babel marked the establishment of the first organized form of apostasy that the world has ever known. This confederacy of the beast and the false prophet at Armageddon will mark the last organized form of apostasy the world will ever know under this present order, and the downfall of Babylon to rise no more. (Revelation 18:21.)
The Lord has expressly warned us not to fasten our hopes on any human federation. His word is: “Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.” Isaiah 8:12, 9, 10.
When men are centering their hopes in human federations, the Lord calls His children away from these great human combinations, to look directly to Him and His word. (Isaiah 8:13, 20.) People to-day are trusting too little in what the Lord has said in His word, and too much to what erring man says. Man has ever tried in vain to save himself in his own way, instead of following God’s way.
We cannot trust in any human organization for salvation, not even in a membership in a church that is exactly in harmony with the Bible. Our hope must be in a personal experience in conversion and sanctification by the indwelling of Christ in our individual heart by the blessed Holy Spirit.
CALVARY THE WORLD’S ONLY HOPE
Instead of men’s looking for world righteousness to be established by a world state under a world church, God bids them look at that time for the personal and visible return of Jesus Christ as the only means of establishing the reign of righteousness in a renovated earth. Hence we read, “I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him.” Isaiah 8:17.
We must never forget that in spite of all the good that may be accomplished by human plans and federations, the one true hope8
A Universal Christian Empire?
Continued from page 7
of this world is Calvary at the first advent for the regeneration of the soul; the second advent of the Son of God for the redemption of the body and immortality; the third coming of Christ at the end of the millennium for the rebirth of the world, free from sin and sinners, for the establishment of the universal rule of Him to whom alone universal power can be intrusted, and the only One who will not abuse such power.
After this setting forth of what prophecy indicates will come just prior to the end, in the formation of a great religio-political federation, our next step will be to note, in next week’s paper, if there is a drift to-day toward such a confederacy.
(To be continued)
“I’m Going To…”
By Grenville Kleiser
GRENVILLE KLEISER
“I’m going to make tons of money
In the easy Wall-Street game;
I’m going to spend my time and strength
In making a well-known name.
“I’m going to build a showy house,
Outdo my neighbors all;
I’m going to hedge the place around
With a high, imposing wall.
“I’m going to join a dozen clubs
And see my name in print;
Since money brings publicity,
I’ll spend it without stint.
“I’m going to own a private yacht,
To be in the social swim;
It will cost a lot of money,
But I’ll gratify my whim.
“I’m going to travel much abroad,
And boast of what I know;
No matter what the cost may be,
I’m going to make a show.
“I’m going to do a lot of good,
Not now—I’m busy, you see;
I’m going to give to sick and poor,
That is,—sometime,—maybe.
“I’m going to do so many things;”
His face was worried and wan.
“I’m going—” he quickly gasped for breath;
“I’m going—” and he was gone!
A Saviour of Men
By Earle Albert Rowell
Earle Albert Rowell
I was reared an infidel. My parents and other immediate relatives were proud of their unbelief. I was nourished on the vaunting skeptics of the ages.
But I observed the helpless amazement with which every doubter from Celsus to Wells stood around the cradle of the Christ. I wondered why this Babe was thrust into the world at a time when Roman greed, Jewish hate, and Greek subtlety would combine to crush Him. And yet this most powerful devastating combination ever known in history served only to advance the cause of the helpless Infant who was born in a stable—the purest human being in the world born in the filthiest place in the world.
I marveled that this poverty-stricken, uneducated plebeian, who exercised no authority, commanded no army, held no office, received no honors, wrote no books, and who died in early manhood the most contemptible of deaths—a malefactor on a cross between two criminals—I marveled that His name is yet the most esteemed name on earth.
No skeptic could tell me why the dynamic of His words—as charged with power to-day as nineteen hundred years ago—blew powerful empires to bits. Nor could scoffers explain how those pierced hands pulled human monsters with gnarled 'souls out of a hell of iniquity, and overnight transformed them into steadfast glorious heroes who died in torturing flames that others might know the love and mighty power of the Christ who had saved them.
No agnostic could make clear why seemingly immortal empires pass into oblivion while the glory and power of the murdered Galilean are gathering beauty and momentum with every attack and every age. Nor could any scoffer explain, as Jesus Himself so daringly foretold, why His words are flowing in an ever-rising tidal wave of splendor and, by telephone, airplane, and radio, by rail, horse, and foot, are piercing the densest forests, scaling the highest mountains, crossing the deepest seas and the widest deserts to thrill, shock, illumine, and save in every nation, tongue, and people on earth.
No doubter has told how this isolated Jew could utter words at once so simple that a child could understand them and so deep that the greatest thinkers cannot plumb their shining depths. The life, the words, the character, of this strange Man are the enigma of history. Any naturalistic explanation makes Him a more puzzling paradox, a fathomless mystery.
But I learned that the paradox was plain and the mystery solved when I accepted Him for what He claimed to be—the Son of God, come from heaven a Saviour of men, of me.
And who does not thrill at the angel’s words: “Behold, . . . for unto you is born this day . . . a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” And so I bless the day when I learned the wonderful truth that—
“Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
If He’s not born in thee, thy soul is still forlorn.”
The Only Hope
By Arthur W. Spalding
ARTHUR W. SPALDING
UPON Judea’s hills, nigh two thousand years ago, there shined a light that heralded the most stupendous event of the ages. It was the birth of a babe.
The great things of life are not perceived by the common eye. Man plunders the earth for stuff to make his monument. He chisels the mountain for stone, he digs in the bowels of the earth for metals, he hews down the forest for beams, he seizes the floods for water, he reaches into the sky for his lightnings. He combines them all; and from the wide world man has built—a house. God takes a tiny cell, within which He has hidden His life. He bids it grow; it multiplies, twofold, a hundredfold, a millionfold. And as it grows, God stoops down and whispers to it, saying to these, “You be the hands;” to those, “You be the heart,” “the brain,” “the eyes,” “the tongue,” a thousand offices and powers, intricate and infinite. And from an unseen atom God has made—a man, to rule the world.
When Jesus was born of Mary in Bethlehem, it was the fulfillment of God’s promise to the parents of the race, of a Seed that should redeem good from evil and bless the world with peace. Wherefore the angels sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
If the world as yet knows not peace, if good will has not wholly displaced strife, if the glory of God is not the chief aim of man, it is because the creation of God is in great part hidden by the world’s imperception. God’s infinity is concealed in its infinitesimal beginnings. Yet, living and growing in the womb of time, the purpose of God is being wrought; and when the days are fulfilled, it shall be born in perfectness. What hinders? and what shall hinder?
This hinders, and this alone: that every man, or any man, fail to take Jesus into his heart. Christ’s problem with the world is His problem with me. I have beheld the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, but there has been a veil before my eyes; I have heard His voice inviting me to come, and I have followed—a little way; I have felt His hand touching my infirmity, and I have been healed—to a degree; I have seen His power to cleanse the heart from sin, and I have been cleansed—in part. But, oh, I have seen dimly, I have risen slowly, I have taken but a step. Else had there been in me a transcendent power to heal the nations.
Christ’s problem with me is His problem with the world. If there be any virtue in the world, it is the result of contact with Christ. If mercy has overtopped savagery; if service has anywhere taken the place of strife; if it has been made possible for little children to laugh, for women to sing, for men to walk unafraid, it is because the world has partaken to that degree of the freely proffered spirit of Jesus. And because the world has not taken freely, it languishes and longs.
I am a Christian, and I am glad. Except for the light that shines in the face of Jesus Christ, I should have no sight and no hope. But I have hope, and I have courage, and I have certainty of faith. I know that the Seed of God is perfecting His purpose, and that in beauty and supremacy He will soon appear, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. That, too, is the hope of the world, the only means of its salvation.
Therefore I pray that in my own heart, and in the hearts of men the world over,Ninethere may be given free course to the workings of God, that the whispers of His Spirit may be heard and minded in our members, that in the fullness of His time “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord,” shall be “changed into the same image from glory to glory, . . . by the Spirit of the Lord.”
The Lamb of God
By Gwynne Dalrymple
GWYNNE DALRYMPLE
The Star of Bethlehem, which led the wise men to the city of David, did not shine down upon a world sunk in barbarianism. The age that beheld the Son of God clothed in human flesh was the age greatest, if we except our own, in culture, in knowledge, and in civilization.
Scholars and philosophers, artists and priests, teachers and orators, sophists and rhetoricians, capitalists, organizers, and politicians, all had contributed to make the world of that day what it was. Into that ancient civilization had been fused the deeds and thoughts of Plato, Aristotle, Hillel, Shammai, Demosthenes, Alexander, Vergil, Crassus, Julius, and Augustus. It was an age of powerful and brilliant achievement.
Yet all that mankind had accomplished in religious thought, in metaphysical speculation, and in organized activity had not brought men a pace nearer to their Creator. Sin reigned.
In Bethlehem, Jesus was born to unite men with God.
What this world would have been if He had never been born, or whether in that case a new civilization would ever have arisen upon the ruins of the old, are questions I shall not attempt to answer here. Yet whenever I see a hospital, an orphan asylum, a home for the aged, a mission for the fallen; whenever I compare the status of the women of the West with that of their unhappy sisters of the East; whenever I contemplate whatever influences for humanity, for gentleness, for sympathy, for refinement of word and thought and deed, for charity and love, may be in the world around us, I see the supreme value of Christianity to the world.
But pressing the question closer home, what does the birth of Jesus mean to me?
When Christ was born, there came into the world “God of God, Light of light, very God of very God;” and He is still the Light of the world, and my Light.
When Christ was born, there came into the world the Son of Mary, the brother of Simon and Joses and Jude; I see in Him that patient tenderness that forms at once the foundation and the crown of the true home.
When Christ was born, there came a Carpenter, who by His toil with saw and plane and ax has told me patiently to endure in the lowly duties that each day brings.
When Christ came into the world, there came the Saviour of Magdalene, and the last one who ever called Judas, “Friend;” so I know that while His love is in my heart I shall not despise those who are plunged into the mire of sin, nor shall I hate even those who have sunk into the pit of treachery.
When Christ came into the world, there came the great Believer,—the One who, beyond the malice of enemies and the cowardice of friends, supremely discerned the purpose of God; His faith did not falter, and His courage did not fail.
The birth of Christ meant that there had come the Lamb of God, who made one sacrifice perfect and complete; and through that sacrifice I live.
The birth of Christ meant that a Saviour came, who saves me.
