Your ShelfYour Projects

Review and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 37.

Come, Lord Jesus!

Review and Herald

Sep 13, 1906

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 13, 1906

“Come, Lord Jesus!”

¶ “O Thou who hast taken on Thyself humanity, that Thou mightest bear our griefs, and carry our sorrows, and atone for all our sins,— Thou whose loud expiring cry upon the cross rung through the universe the triumphant truth that our redemption is accomplished, that its battle has been fought, its victory won; the foe vanquished; sin canceled, made an end of, and known no more,— Thou whose tender sympathies and whose immortal love surpassing knowledge are with us still, whose sacred presence unseen, but ever felt, guards and guides Thy redeemed in all their pilgrim way,— Thou who art coming in the brightness of Thy majesty, in the sweetness of Thy grace, in the fulness of Thy strength, to finish our redemption, and complete Thy triumph over all our fears and all our foes,— Thou whose unchangeable purpose it is to surround Thyself with the spotless beauty of a new creation, whose voice shall yet proclaim the renovation of a ruined world, the completion of the conquest of our evil by Thy good, the consummation of the moral movement of all these ages carried forward by Thine unwearied Spirit in the souls of men, the perfecting of Thy redeemed in the holy image of their Redeemer; whose faithful hand shall yet finish the true temple of Jehovah, the living temple of His fulness, and habitation of His glory forever and forever,— Thou whose latest promise and last recorded utterance is, ‘Surely I come quickly,’ and whose coming is now near at hand— Life of our life — Light of our light — God manifested — God with us — our everlasting all — we long, we watch, we wait to welcome Thee; come as Thou hast said— come soon. ‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus!’”

Our Publishing Work

By Editor

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Psalm 68:11.
See last paragraph on this page for instructions where to order.
“ALMOST A WOMAN” was written by a devoted lady physician, and deals with matters which young girls approaching womanhood should understand. Cloth, new edition, 50 cents.
MAN in life and death, the reward of the righteous and the destiny of the wicked, is most plainly and forcibly portrayed in a work by Uriah Smith, entitled “Here and Hereafter.” This book contains every scripture bearing upon the subject of immortality. In cloth binding, $1.
“BELL’S LANGUAGE SERIES” is especially adapted for use in home study. These books are properly graded, and adapted to language study from the first lesson to the college course. This series is the genuine natural method in English, and gives an understanding of principles rather than a statement of rules. Book One, “Primary Language Lessons,” 65 cents. Book Two, “Elementary Grammar,” 65 cents. Book Three, “Complete Grammar,” 80 cents. Book Four, “Rhetoric and Higher English,” $1.25. Book Five, “Studies in English Literature,” $1.75.
The evolution theory being advocated by many religious teachers, and many of the professed believers accepting it and offering its arguments in contradiction to the Bible, our readers will do well to secure and study a copy of “Illogical Geology: The Weakest Point in the Evolution Theory,” by George McCready Price. One copy, 25 cents; three copies, 60 cents; ten copies, $1.75. It is the only work in any language which approaches the science of geology inductively, and which does not treat it more or less as a cosmogony. In the light of the facts it presents, the old fable of successive ages is set at naught, along with many other companion theories. Every REVIEW reader ought to study “Illogical Geology” so as to be ready to meet the arguments of the advocates of evolution.
How many of our readers have a copy of that helpful volume, “The Abiding Spirit,” treating upon the presence and power of the Holy Spirit as manifested in the most common, material things, and as needed in the performance of the most simple duties, setting forth the constant presence of the one Holy Spirit as the condition of existence, and health and successful life as dependent upon the intelligent recognition of this presence in the proper adjustment of everything, physical and mental, to this power? The book will reveal to the reader the simple, but sure way the larger portion of the common perplexities of life may be transformed into pleasurable duties. Its purpose is to show the power of the Holy Spirit, and its relation to the human soul. The spirit of the work is excellent, and it should be in every home. It is beautifully bound in cloth, gold stamped, with gilt edges, 75 cents. In plain cloth, 40 cents.
AN exhaustive study of the Scriptures on the sanctuary question is to be found in “Looking unto Jesus.” In these days, when the faith of some is being overthrown, it is important to review these subjects which constitute the pillars of our faith. Price, in plain cloth, 75 cents.
WE advise our young people to read “The Lover’s Love, or, John Three-Sixteen.” It is a wonderful book, revealing the wonderful depth of meaning in that familiar text, “God so loved the world,” etc. It is a devotional book, filled with practical suggestions that will be helpful to all. In neat cloth binding, 75 cents, post-paid.
“THOUGHTS FROM THE MOUNT OF BLESSING” contains wonderful lessons drawn from Christ’s sermon on the mount. The instruction of this book is so simple and so practical, every page breathing the spirit of the Master, that one can not read it without being greatly helped and encouraged. It is an excellent work to loan to neighbors and friends. It will bring to them blessings that possibly may not reach them in any other way. Price, in cloth, 60 cents.
READ what A. W. Spaulding said in the editorial department of the REVIEW of September 6, under the heading “Do You Know Our History?” and then send to this office ten cents for a copy of the 1905 Year-Book, which contains a historical summary of the denomination, giving the rise and progress of its work together with historical data regarding the organizations and institutions connected therewith. The regular price of the Year-Book is twenty-five cents, but as it is now valuable only for the historical summary and a few other matters, we will furnish it to those who will order it at an early date at 10 cents a copy, post-paid.
“WHAT AND HOW TO ANSWER” is an eight-page tract of the Words of Truth Series, No. 41. While it is merely a tract, it is admirably adapted for answering the questions invariably asked by all children about the origin of life. It contains suggestions to parents relative to what and how to answer these questions, and permits no shadow of deception or evil to rest upon the subject. It is written in a forcible, chaste, yet gentle manner. Nothing could be more simply set forth for the perfect initiation and enlightenment of the inquiring child. Every one who has to do with the education of children should have this little tract. Many have said of it, “Worth its weight in gold.” Price, 50 cents a hundred.
Orders for any publication mentioned on this page may be sent to any conference tract society or to Review and Herald Publishing Association, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C., or Battle Creek, Mich.
Also Pacific Press Publishing Company, Mountain View, Cal.; Portland, Ore.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and Fort Worth, Tex.

Editorial

By Editor

Few persons deliberately decide that they will not believe on Christ for salvation from their sins. They simply delay the decision until they have missed the opportunity, or have lost the desire for a Saviour. It is never safe to put off so important a matter, but it is especially dangerous in these times of peril. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
In this last generation the whole gospel of Christ must be preached in its original simplicity and purity. Every perversion of the truth must be rejected, and neglected doctrines must be revived. The law in its relation to the gospel and the gospel in its relation to the law should be clearly presented. Sinai and the cross are both necessary. There must be knowledge of sin before there can be any need felt for a Saviour. Christ must be lifted up as our sacrifice, our substitute, and our surety; and he must be believed upon as our High Priest who is now finishing his work in the heavenly sanctuary, and who will soon come again to gather his elect to himself. Those who are preparing for translation will seek a special experience of cleansing from sin in order to be ready to meet their Saviour face to face. The Sabbath is the sign of the power of God in creation and in re-creation in Christ Jesus,—the sign of the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ, the sign of rest from sin,—and the Sabbath, both as a doctrine and as an experience, belongs to those who are looking for the new heavens and the new earth.
The worship of God in spirit and in truth, and the repudiation of all forms of false worship—the beast and his image—are fundamental in this original gospel. By the preaching of such a gospel the way of the Lord will be prepared, and soon the coming One will be here. Let the truth in its fulness be proclaimed.
At the very time when some are departing from the faith, the message is winning its greatest triumphs. The experience which seemed, according to human calculations, likely to distract and weaken our forces has united and strengthened the true believers. This is God's truth, and it can not be hidden by the mist and fog of human speculation. This advent movement is under divine leadership, and neither Satan nor any of his agents can prevent its speedy triumph.
“Ye who rose to meet the Lord, Ventured on his faithful word, Faint not now, for your reward Will be quickly given. Faint not, always watch and pray; Jesus will no more delay; Even now ’tis dawn of day; Day-star beams from heaven.”

Proclaiming the Truth About the Sabbath

The Seventh-day Adventists and one of their fundamental doctrines, the observance of the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath according to the plain teaching of the Scriptures, have received marked attention in the Northwest. A Methodist pastor in the city of Portland, Ore., announced a series of lectures upon “Modern Substitutes for Christ,” the sixth lecture of the course being upon “Seventh-day Adventism.” A report of this lecture appeared in the weekly Oregonian of August 16 with the statement that “though speaking well of the Adventist Church as a congregation of people,” yet the speaker “denounced their religion in no uncertain terms as the enemy of the Lord’s day, or Christian sabbath.”
In the same issue of the Oregonian appeared an editorial on “Sunday Legislation,” in which some plain truth was told in a plain way about the Sabbath question. We quote:—
The reason for observing the seventh day is that the Almighty then rested after the labor of creating the universe. The fact of his having reposed during its sacred hours, hallowed the day to all eternity. Therefore, in keeping the first day instead of the seventh, the original reason for Sabbath observance is flouted. The example of the Almighty is set aside, and the commandment is ignored. In this connection it is useless to cite the custom of later ages. It is also useless to cite reasons for observing the first day instead of the seventh. There may be excellent reasons for keeping the first day sacred; but these only go to show that we ought, perhaps, to keep two days of the week holy, that we should not desecrate the true Sabbath for the sake of one of human invention.
There is no record that the Almighty ever revoked his command to rest on the seventh day. Therefore, all those who observe the first day of the week do not obey the original decree, and all laws which aim to substitute Sunday for the true Sabbath are unscriptural. The belief that Sunday-keeping is obedience to the Mosaic commandment is a piece of superstition, and those who quote the fourth commandment in justification of the practise turn from its clear intent.
Men who have not been trained to interpret into the Bible the meaning of the church creed have no difficulty in seeing that there is no Scriptural authority for observing Sunday, but that, on the contrary, the fourth commandment plainly points out the last day of the week, commonly called Saturday, as the day to be remembered and to be kept holy. If theologians would only adhere to the Protestant principle—the Bible, and the Bible alone, a sufficient rule of faith and practise—there would be no voice heard from a Protestant pulpit denouncing the religion of Seventh-day Adventists “as the enemy of the Lord’s day, or Christian sabbath.” The Roman Catholics speak truly when they say: “The Biblical Protestant has not a word in self-defense for his substitution of Sunday for Saturday.”
A reply to the Methodist pastor was made by Elder G. A. Snyder, which was quite fully reported in a subsequent issue of the Oregonian, as was also another sermon on Sunday laws. From the report of the latter discourse we take the following paragraph:—
Our opponents must admit one of two things: either that Sunday is a religious day, and therefore not a proper subject for legislation under the Constitution, or else it is not a religious day at all, only a political institution. We do not care which horn of this dilemma they choose on which to impale themselves.
The same paper in which these reports appeared contained an editorial with the title “Keeping the Sabbath.” We quote this article in full:—
The advocates of Sabbath legislation will have to wriggle rather smartly to elude the dilemma in which Elder Snyder has entrapped them. If such legislation is enacted on religious grounds, the elder argues, it is unconstitutional, for Congress is expressly forbidden to make any laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Since there are many people in the country who keep the seventh day instead of the first, and many more who keep no day at all, Congress would invidiously discriminate in favor of certain religious views were it to enact a law for the observance of Sunday. Such discrimination among sects and opinions is contrary to the very genius of American institutions. Our government, as a government, knows nothing of religious opinions or warring sects. Such matters, we have found, are best left to the individual to settle for himself; and so long as he violates no moral precept and disturbs no other worshipers, the law will not interfere with his preference, whatever it may be. He may keep the first day or the seventh, every day or no day, as he may choose. Concerning such matters the law should be a very Galileo; it should care nothing about them.
Elder Snyder pertinently remarks that the Adventists, who keep the Scriptural Sabbath, or the seventh day, need no law to help them obey their consciences. Why can not other sects get along as well as they do? Why must they continually appeal to the state or the nation to assist them in doing what they think is right? The fact of the matter seems to be that they are more eager to compel others to conform to what they think is right than to walk in the straight and narrow way themselves. If every person were content to satisfy his own conscience about the Sabbath, and leave the same liberty to others, we should hear very little about Sunday laws; but religious freedom is the last privilege which most men are willing to concede to their neighbors. Most of us are determined that our friends shall go to heaven in our way or not go at all.
But the elder’s dilemma has another horn. The Sabbath is either a religious institution, or it is not. If religious, Congress has no right to meddle with it under the Constitution. If not a religious institution, why make such a fuss over it? Really, the elder’s argument is rather neat. Of course the advocates of Sunday laws can answer him, but just at this moment it is not entirely evident what they can say.
It is a pity that it is left to a secular paper to enunciate these simple principles of religious liberty. Those who claim to believe and to teach to the world the gospel of Christ ought to be the last persons to invoke the aid of the civil law in order to maintain religious observances. Jesus never did this. His appeal was to the conscience of the individual, the obligation to obey the Creator and Ruler of the universe.
On every hand we see plain indications of the approaching crisis over the question of Sabbath observance. The spirit of intolerance and the demand for the enforcement of Sunday observance are growing. But this will bring the truth to the front, and compel attention to the Scripture basis for the only true Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. All the world must hear the message against the beast and his image.

“Beautiful Upon the Mountains”

By William Ambrose Spicer

THE German-Swiss camp-meeting is just closing at Kussnacht, by Zurich. The camp is five hundred feet above Lake Zurich, in which we can see mirrored the continuous fringe of villages that surround it. This mountain country is a beautiful land. But there is something to be seen here infinitely more beautiful and glorious than the natural scenery.
The third angel’s message is spreading the glorious light of the coming kingdom over these mountains and valleys. In our meeting every laborer had a good report to make of souls embracing the truth, and new and old believers rejoiced together in the blessed hope.
When the old Basel headquarters was transferred to Gland, in the French-Swiss field, it took between forty and fifty members—and most of them workers—from this German-Swiss Conference, and transferred the institutional interests to the western part of the country. But, as though the Lord recognized this gift to an even needier field, the German work in Switzerland has gone forward with even renewed vigor. The loss in membership has been considerably more than made up, and the tithe for the year shows an increase of about two hundred and fifty dollars.
A new impetus has been given to the canvassing work by a successful institute that preceded the camp-meeting. These brethren and sisters are also looking beyond their own land. The presence in the meeting of Peter Nyambo, the brother from our Nyassaland Mission, who has been studying in London and Friedensau, helped to fasten their interest in the African mission work, which was set before them by Brother Conradi.
One little gift impressed me with the unity of interest in our world-wide work. A sister from one of these mountain valleys brought with her to the meeting a ten-franc gold piece, for India. She had heard of her sisters in heathen darkness there, and wanted to help forward the work for them.
Thus the fields are thinking of one another, praying for one another, and helping one another to send this message on.
Elder H. F. Schuberth, the conference president, and his fellow laborers, have a growing work upon their hands, and a people rejoicing in the truth to join them and support them in the work.
Laborers and people to whom the truth is coming in these Alpine valleys can take very literally the text: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” W. A. S.

Entering Canaan

By C. M. S.

If the book of Deuteronomy contains special instruction for the people of the last days, we shall not be fortified for those days without special study of that book. We shall find in it many precious lessons of a general application, and we shall also find in it very definite and specific instruction on particular subjects.
The reason which the Lord mentions for giving the people his law while still in the wilderness was that they might learn to obey it in the land into which he was bringing them. They had forgotten the ordinances of the Lord, and the world was far from walking in harmony with those precepts. For several hundred years they had mingled with a people who were worshiping gods of their own creation, and almost everything in creation in which the life principle was manifest. So God brought them out from that people to make them a peculiar people for himself; and during all that journey he was educating them and fitting them for an inheritance in the land he had prepared for them. He would bring them in a pure people, free from idolatry and heathen customs.
In view of God's purpose concerning them, and in view of the associations in which he found them, these words have special significance:—
“Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of form on the day that Jehovah spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire; lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flieth in the heavens, the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth; and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and worship them, and serve them.” Deut. 4:15-19.
They had been among a people who saw a god in everything alive, and in everything they could create to represent their idea of his attributes. No doubt many of the Israelites had imbibed the ideas of the pantheistic people among whom they lived. So before taking them to the land of their inheritance, the Lord must teach them to purge themselves from pantheism and learn the pure worship of the true God.
To-day when the time of the long-expected entering into the antitypical promised land is drawing nigh, the same instruction is needed, and it is needed, too, among the people whose hearts are specially set upon that glorious consummation.
If the Israelites of old were so specifically instructed in the wilderness that they might live out the principles of God's law in their promised land, it is necessary also that we shall know the principles of that law here, that we may be prepared to keep it in the land into which we hope so soon to enter. A kind of religious philosophy, based on the pantheistic teachings of the ancients, is spreading through the world like a veritable leaven of death. The people from whom Israel was called out saw a god in everything, and so they worshiped everything. The modern world, out of which God's remnant people are called, is traveling toward that same wide gate. As the instruction was necessary then to prepare the people to enter in, so it is necessary now when the antitypical Canaan is so very near. “Little children,” says the apostle John, “guard yourselves from idols.” Idolatry was merely the working out of a belief. The belief thus worked out was pantheistic. What is worked out then it will work out now. So we must consider the instruction given in the above scripture quotation as applicable to us, and necessary, and meeting a condition now, even as it did then.
C. M. S.

The Message to Catholics

By William Ambrose Spicer

During the last year, in Europe about four hundred Catholics have taken their stand for the truth. The brethren there are seeing exactly what the South American brethren report—evidence that the Lord is at this time specially leading Catholic hearts to inquire after truth.
Especially during the last year or two, the way has been preparing for the message to reach the true-hearted among the Catholics. Simultaneously with the cleansing and purifying of the church, the Lord is preparing hearts in dark Catholic and heathen lands to receive the truth.
At our Gland meeting, in Switzerland, the little band of representatives gathered from the wide-spread field of Latin Europe. It was a little band, truly. As I looked at our brethren, and thought of the giant superstitions and prejudices that they were contending against in their fields, I could think only of the words of 2 Chron. 20: 12, 13:—
“O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee. And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.”
The Lord sent victory to the people of Judah, and he is giving victory to our comrades in Latin Europe. Portugal reported its first-fruits—the first Sabbath-keeper in that land. During the last six months the Lord has visited the work in Spain in a special manner, and eight or nine have taken their stand. Italy and Belgium report new believers, France and Switzerland make good additions, and Brother Jespersson from Algeria brought the glad news that four or five in that new north African mission have accepted the Sabbath.
Two years ago I attended the Latin Union meeting at Vevey. That was a good meeting, with good reports. But there has been splendid growth during the two years,—growth in numbers and growth in grace,—and the message has won many victories in that time. The blessings of the Lord have attended the medical and educational work, as well as the field evangelistic work. The Gland Sanitarium was filled, and the spirit of the institution was strongly missionary. The great lack is in the canvassing field. But the brethren realize this, and are working to bring up this department. There is courage in the hearts of the workers in Latin Europe.
A large part of the German field is Catholic. In and out, amid the difficulties and obstructions that church and state union has put in the way, this truth is pressing grandly forward, as in old Reformation days.
It was good in the meetings in Europe to meet numbers of former Catholics who are thanking God for this message, and giving every evidence that they are as ready to sacrifice and work for the message as any of us.
The message is going swiftly forward. The way opens faster than the growing band of workers can follow on, and the cry in Europe is for more laborers to enter the harvest-field. And they are coming in, thank the Lord, at the rate of about two thousand a year.
Who that thinks of the Europe of twenty years ago can not see that God has set his hand to finish the work?
W. A. S.

The October Collection for the Colored Work in the South

By George I. Butler

About three years ago the General Conference Committee of our people assembled in College View, Neb. After a careful consideration of the matter, it was unanimously voted to set apart each autumn a day for the taking up of a collection for the colored work in the South. The primary reason for this collection is the great and distressing need that exists.
We are a missionary people, making strenuous efforts to-day for the spread of what we firmly believe to be the saving truths of the third angel’s message throughout our world, the everlasting gospel in fact, with the glorious truth of the close proximity of the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ embraced in this message. It is a source of deepest interest to us as a people that this message is being proclaimed in all the great nations of the world to-day, and that every part of our world is being made acquainted with it.
While we greatly rejoice at the rapid progress of our work in all climes and in all lands, and behold thousands in foreign countries embracing it and rejoicing in the light of present truth; and while we are sending missionaries far away to benighted Asia, dark Africa, and the islands of the sea, and intend to continue to do so, may it not be proper to carefully consider a neglected branch of missionary effort in our own land? It is gratifying to know that the United States of America was the highly favored country which God chose in which to originate and develop the great system of present truth which we believe is so important for the world in these last days. This country must ever be the place from which are sent forth the ambassadors of truth to enlighten all lands. It is our greatest joy as a people that God has bestowed upon us this inestimable privilege of thus scattering the seeds of divine truth in all lands. May God help us faithfully to do this work. But we must not neglect unfortunate peoples or races in our own borders. To such we owe special consideration.
The Africans are naturally a religious race. Even the intense and degrading superstitions practised in their native land are evidences of this. Those are Satan’s perversions of their religious natures. The earnest piety of many converted Africans is other and better evidence of the same thing.
Had the glorious light of present truth been diligently taught this race in our own country since the abolition of slavery, as it should have been, we might have had many colored missionaries to send to the Dark Continent, to better endure the perils of that climate than white races can.
How many are the reproofs and admonitions of the Testimonies to us for not having done far more for the colored race among us? Probably there is no one thing which has more grieved the heart of the servant of the Lord than this neglect on our part to do a greatly needed work for that unfortunate race. It is some little perception of this fact that has prompted the appointment of a day each year for the collections for the colored people.
The facts warrant the necessity of this step. There are in our country to-day about nine or ten millions of the descendants of those shipped from Africa’s coast in the horrible slave ships, perhaps fully one eighth of the whole population of the United States.
To the best of the writer’s belief, there is considerably less than one thousand colored Sabbath-keepers in the United States to-day. Probably three fourths of these are in the Southern Union Conference. The writer is perhaps as well informed as to the number of these Sabbath-keepers as any one, having given the subject close consideration because of his official position, and he doubts if there are over five hundred colored Sabbath-keepers within the bounds of this union conference. Quite a portion of these came into the truth as the result of the trips of the “Morning Star,” and the labors of those who made earnest efforts in connection with her for the building up of the colored work.
It can be readily seen that here is a work that has been sadly neglected. The Testimonies have reiterated this fact over and over. Our denomination in the United States, numbering in the aggregate some sixty or seventy thousand, can not justly shirk this great responsibility. It rests upon us as a people. God will not bless our efforts to ignore it or thrust it off. It is absurd beyond all expression to assume that the less than two thousand white Sabbath-keepers in the South, in their poverty and weakness, can carry this immense responsibility. That burden of responsibility rests upon all our Sabbath-keepers in the United States. God has given them the light of truth. He has given them the means. Perishing souls in our own country must receive attention. There is no other source to which to look. It is useless to think of looking to foreign fields for financial aid. The blood of souls will be found on our garments if we do not heartily endeavor to carry forward this work.
Neither is this collection taken up for the benefit of the Southern Union Conference alone. To be sure, the larger part of it goes to that union conference, but solely from the fact that probably three fourths of all the colored people in the United States live therein. The Southwestern Union Conference has a portion of the collection, as do also Virginia and Maryland; and at the late meeting of the General Conference Committee last spring another small percentage was claimed for the colored work in Washington. We make no complaint of these subdivisions of the fund. The progress of the work among this unfortunate race in any part of the United States is of the same interest and importance. Yet the great bulk live within the bounds of the Southern Union Conference. There is the greatest need.
The educational interests predominate above all others in importance; indeed, our whole work is educational in its nature. In the “Morning Star,” which served as a meeting-house where the truth was preached to the benighted toilers of the dark race, night-schools were also held, and young people, middle aged, and even old people came as pupils. One interesting case may be mentioned of an old woman who had never learned to read. She had a great longing to be able to read her Bible for herself. Under great difficulties she resolutely studied, with this object in view, and triumphantly succeeded, being at last able to read her Bible through. What a lesson and reproof for multitudes of the more favored white people who are well able to read all kinds of literature, but who care nothing for the blessed Bible.
As the work broadened from its initiation on the “Morning Star,” schools for colored pupils were established, and wherever established, finally resulted in the organization of churches of that race. These schools have been kept up by the aid which the Southern Missionary Society has furnished. Here is a great field of usefulness opened up; and the great need which the collection is designed to supply is to help sustain and enlarge the sphere of these most useful schools, establishing them all through the South, helping to erect suitable school buildings, pay teachers, etc. Help must be extended, as they can not be made self-supporting in view of the great poverty prevailing among Seventh-day Adventists.
We have but one training-school for the colored people in the world to-day. This is established near Huntsville, Ala. It has been in progress about six years. It needs the fostering care of our people generally. It ought to be filled to its utmost capacity by the brightest students to be obtained among the colored population. It is an industrial school, situated on a large farm. Improvements and added facilities are greatly needed. This training-school is the hope of the colored work; here teachers, nurses, Bible workers, and young ministers should be instructed and trained to carry the truths of this message among this needy people. The spirit of prophecy has spoken in the most positive terms of the importance and great needs of this school. Will our people help to meet the expense of this undertaking? We must look to this collection to meet this crying want.
A small percentage of the collection is also appropriated to assist the weaker State conferences of the Southern Union and other fields in sustaining this work in their territories. Such funds are greatly needed. May the Lord put it into the hearts of our people to be liberal in their gifts to this most important October collection.
GEO. I. BUTLER
President Southern Union Conference.

Note and Comment

MEN who dig into the earth are continually finding evidences of a great world cataclysm, and scientists are as constantly interpreting them to mean a slow transformation of the earth's surface during a period of millions of years. For instance, government scientists say indisputable evidence has just been found showing that centuries ago the Pacific Ocean extended as far east as Colorado. The Gunnison Tunnel, which is now more than a mile into the heart of the mountain, has just pierced a bed of black shale filled with large sea-shells. Thousands upon thousands of them have been taken out in the excavated material. One of the scientists engaged upon the undertaking declared that these had “undoubtedly been deposited in the ocean millions of years ago.” Why they should be found under the center of a great sea-mountain is not explained. The writer has broken open rocks in the mountains of Pennsylvania and found the unmistakable impress of masses of sea-shells in the rocks there. Would not this prove, then, that the Pacific Ocean had extended as far east as Pennsylvania also? And if to Pennsylvania, why not over to the Bay of Fundy, Cape Cod, and Key West? The fact of the matter is — just as it is stated in the Word of God — a flood of waters covered the earth, the fountains of the great deep were broken up, the tops of the mountains were covered. The earth was broken, and mountains appeared where seas had been, and many of the living creatures destroyed by the flood were buried in the terrible overturnings that were going on at that time. This is not scientific, for it was not done by slow, gradual erosion nor by equally slow and gradual precipitation. Nevertheless it is a fact. When God takes hold of a world, he does not require a million years to bury a mussel bed under a mountain.

The Influence of the Future Life

THE voice of inspiration declares that “the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal,” and we are urged to set our affections “on things above, not on things on the earth;” but there is a growing tendency to reverse this divine order, and to lose sight of the things of the kingdom of God. Commenting upon the declaration that men in these modern times are very little influenced in their daily lives by any thought of a future world, the Christian Guardian says:—
It can not be denied that the great teaching of a future life has a strangely insignificant influence upon the lives of the majority of people. When we think of all the implications of such a teaching, we are led to marvel that if men and women really do believe it—and believe it they must, in some sense, instinctively and of necessity,—that it does not mean more to them, that it does not bulk larger in the thought and plan and scheme of their lives. And the strangest thing of all is that this indifference, if we may so call it, this lack of influence of a great and sublime truth, is seen not only in the lives of those who care little for spiritual realities, but even to good men, to spiritually minded men, “the world to come” counts for surprisingly little. In fact, if we were asked to name a striking peculiarity of the religious life of our time, we would speak of this one first—that this belief in living again, so universal and deep-rooted in our human nature that it seems impossible for us to get away from it, should count for so little in the daily life and experience of those who are followers of Him who came to bring life and immortality to light in the gospel.
One reason for this indifference concerning the doctrine of a future life may be found in the fact that there is so much unscriptural teaching concerning it. If the nearness of the coming of our Lord should be emphasized more, and if the glorious prospect of the new earth should be presented so that men would have something tangible to lay hold upon, their faith in the realities of the future life might be revived. The only hope of improving the present situation is found in teaching the truth.
Continue reading: Sunday Trading Report and Sabbath Rights